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Cornell University Library
E 302.J45 1869
V.7
Writings of Thomas Jefferson
3 1924 026 091 615
K7
®
THE
WEITING8
or
THOMAS JEFFERSON:
BEING HIS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS, MESSAGES,
ADDRESSES, AND OTHER WRITINGS, OFFICIAL
AND PRIVATE.
PUBLISHED BT THE ORDER OP THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF COHCRESS ON THE LIBKARV.
FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS,
DEPOSITED m THE DEPARTMENT OP STATE.
t
■WITH BXPLANATOKT NOTES, TABLES OF CONTEITTS AND A COPIOUS INDEX
TO EACH TOLITME, AS WELL AS A QENEBAL INDEX TO THE WHOLE.
BY THE EDITOR
H. A. WASHIITGTOK
VOL. VIL
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
186 9.
^.//ro
/^cornell\
university
LIBRARY
CONTENTS TO VOL. VII.
BOOK n.
Paet 111. — Continued. — Letters written after his return to the Uni-
ted States down to the time of his death. — (1790-1826,) — 3.
Adams, John, letters written to, 25, 37,43, 54, 61, 81, 199, 217, 243, 254,
264, 274, 280, 307, 313, 33.7, 435.
Adams, Mrs. A., letter written to, 62.
Adams, J. Q., letter written to, 436.
BaiTy, Wm. T., letter written to, 255.
Blatchly, C. C, letter written to, 263.
Breokenridge, General, letters written to, 204, 237.
Cabell, Joseph C, letters written to, 201, 329, 350, 392.
Campbell, John, letter written to, 268.
Cartv^right, Major John, letter written to, 355.
Cooper, Dr., letter written to, 2Q6.
Corey, M., letter written to, 318.
Crawford, Wm. H., letter written to, 5.
Dearborne, General, letter written to, 214.
Delaplaine, Mr., letter written to, 20
Denison, Hon. J. Evelyn, letter written to, 415.
Earle, Thomas, letter written to, 310.
Emmet, Dr., letters written to, 438, 441.
Engelbretcht, Isaac, letter written to, 337.
Eppes, Francis, letter written to, 197.
, Everett, Edward, letters written to, 232, 270, 340, 380, 437.
Flower, George, letter written to, 83.
iv OONTENTB TO VOL. VIL
Gallatin, Albert, letter written to, '7'J.
Garnett, Robert J., letter written to, 326.
Giles, Wm. B., letters written to, 424, 426.
Gilmer, Francis W., letter written to, 3.
Gooch, Claiborne W., letter written to, 430.
Hammond, Mr. C, letter written to, 215.
Harding, David H., letter written to, 346.
Hopkins, George R, letter written to, 259.
Humboldt, Baron, letter written to, 74.
Humphreys, Dr. Thomas, letter written to, 67
Johnson, Judge, letters written to, 276, 290.
Kerchival, Samuel, letters written to, 9, 35.
La Fayette, Marquis de la, letters written to, 63, 324, 378
Lee, H., letters written to, 376, 407;
Lee, Wm., letter written to, 56.
Livingston, Edward, letters written to, 342, 402.
Logan, Dr., letter written to, 19.
Ludlow, Wm., letter written to, 377.
Macon, Nathaniel, letter written to, 222.
Madison, James, letters written to, 304, 373, 422, 432.
Mannus, Dr. John, letter written to, 72.
Mansfield, Jared, lettei- written to, 203.
Marbois, M. de, letter written to, 76.
Mease, Dr. James, letter written to, 410.
Megan, Mr., letter written to, 286.
Mellish, Mr., letter written to, 51.
Morse, Jedediah, letter written to, 233.
Nicholas, Mr., letter written to, 229.
Pickering, Timothy, letter written to, 210.
Pleasants, John Hampden, letter written to, 344.
Plumer, Governor, letter written to, 18.
President, The, letters written to, 287, 299, 315.
Ritchie & Gooch, letters written to, 239, 246.
Roane, Judge, letters written tOj 211, 212.
CONTENTS TO VOL. VIL y
Rodgers, Patrick K., letter written to, 327.
Roscoe, Mr., letter written to, 195.
Rush Richard, letters written to, 347 379.
Secretary of State, letter wiitten to, 41.
Short, Wm., letters written to, 309, 389.
Sinclair, St. John, letter written to, 22.
Skidman, Thomas, letter written to, 258.
Smith, Mr. M. Harrison, letter written to, 27.
Smith, James, letter written to, 269.
Smith, General Samuel, letters written to, 284.
Smith, T. J., letter written to, 401.
Smyth, General Alexander, letter written to, 394.
Sparks, Jared, letter written to, 332.
Stuart, Josephus B., letter written to, 64.
Summers, George W., cfec, letter written to, 230.
Taylor, John, letter written to, 17.
Taylor, Hugh P., letter written to, 2.
Terrel, Dabney, letter written to, 206.
Terril, Chiles, letter written to, 260.
Thweat, Archibald, letters written to, 198.
Tiffany, Isaac H., letter written to, 31.
Ticknor, George, letter written to, 300.
Van Buren, Martin, letter written to, 362,
Vaughan, John, letter written to, 409.
Waterhouse, Dr. Benjamin, letters written to, 252, 257.
Weightman, Mr., letter written to, 450.
Whittemore, Mr. Robert, letter written to, 245.
Wiss, Lewis M., letter written to, 419.
Woodward, Mr., letter written to, 338.
Woodward, Judge Augustus B., letter written to, 405.
Wright, Miss, letter written to, 408.
Address lost, letters written to, 220, 223, 383, 397, 411, 426, 431, 444.
Letters to Thomas Jefferson from John Adams, 29, 38, 47, 58, 68, 70, 85,
219, 261, 279, 302, 396.
BOOK III.— Part I.
REPORTS AND OPINIONS WHILE SECRETARY OF STATE.
1. Report on the method of obtaining fresh water from salt, 455.
2. Opinion on the proposition for establishing a woollen manufactory in
Virginia, 460.
3. Report on copper coinage, 462.
4. Opinion on the question whether the Senate has the right to negative
the grade of persons appointed by the Executive to fill foreign mis-
sions, 465.
5. Opinion on the validity of a grant made by the State of Georgia to
certain companies of individuals, of a tract of country, whereof the
Indian right had never been extinguished, with power to such indi-
viduals to extinguish the Indian right, 467.
6. Opinion in favor of the Resolution of May 21, 1790, directing that, in
all cases where payment had not been already made, the debts due
to the soldiers of Virginia and North Caiolina, should be paid to the
original claimants, and not to their assignees, 469.
7. Report on plan for establishing uniformity in the coins, weights and
measures, of the United States, 472.
8. Opinion on the question whether the President should veto the bill,
declaring that the seat of government shall be transferred to the Po-
tomac in the year 1790, 498.
9. Opinion respecting expenses and salaries of foreign ministers, 501.
10. Opinion in regard to the continuances of the monopoly of the com-
merce of the Creek nation enjoyed by Colonel McGillivray, 504.
. 11. Opinion respecting our foreign debt, 506.
12. Opinion on the question whether Lord Dorchester should be permitted
to march troops through the territories of United States from Detroit
to the Mississippi, 508.
13. Opinion on' the question whether the real object of the expedition of
I Governor St. Clair, should be notified to Lord Dorchester, 510.
14. Opinion on the proceedings to be had under the Residence Act, 511.
CONTENTS TO VOL. VII.
vu
15. Keport of the Secretary of State to the President of the United States
on the Eeport of the Secretary of the Government of the North-West
of the Ohio, 516.
16. Opinion on certain proceedings of the Executive in the North-Western
Territory, 515.
17. Eeport on certain letters hetween the President and Governeur Morris,
relative to our difficulties v?ith England, 517.
18. Eeport on the Mediterranean trade, 519.
19. Eeport on the Algerine prisoners, 532.
20. Eeport on the cod and whale fisheries, 538.
21. Opinion against the constitutionaHty of a National Bank, 555.
22. Opinion relative to the ten mile square for the federal government, 561.
23. Eeport on the policy of securing peculiar marks to manufacturers by
law, 563.
24. Opinion relative to the demolition of Mr. Carroll's house by Major
L'Enfant, in laying out the Federal City 564.
25. Opinion relative to certain lands on Lake Erie, sold by the U. States
to Pennsylvania, 567.
26. Eeport on the negotiations with Spain to secure the navigation of the
Mississippi, and a port on the same, 568.
27. Eeport on the case of Charles Eussell and others, claiming certain
lands, 592.
28. Eeport relative to negotiations at Madrid, 593.
29. Opinion on bill apportioning representation, 594.
30. Opinion relative to the re-capture of slaves, escaped to Florida, 601.
31. Eeport on the assays at the mint, 604.
32. Eeport on the petition of John Eodgers relative to certain lands on the
north-east side of the Tennessee, 605.
33. Eeport relative to the boundaries of the lands between the Ohio and
the lakes acquired by treaties from the Indians, 608.
34. Eeport on proceedings of Secretary of State to transfer to Europe the
annual fund of $40,000, appropriated to that department, 610.
35. Opinion on the question whether the United States have the right to
renounce their treaties with France, or hold them suspended, until
the government of that country shall become established, 611.
36. Opinion relative to granting passports to American vessels, 624.
37. Opinion relative to the case of a British vessel captured by a French
vessel, purchased by French citizens, and fitted out as a privateer in
one of our ports, 626.
viii CONTENTS TO VOL. VIL
' 38. Opinion on the proposition of the Secretary of the Treasury to open a
new loan, 629.
\ 39. Opinion relative to the policy of a new loan, 633.
40. Report on the restrictions and privileges of the commerce of the Uiu-
ted states in foreign countries, 636.
X 41. Report on the mint, 651,
PART III.— CONTINaED.
LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE
V. S. DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS DEATH.
1790-1826.
PART III. — Continued.
LETTEkS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE
U. S. DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS DEATH.
1790-1826
TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
M0NTICELI.0, J^ne 7, 1816.
Deak Sik, — I received a few days ago from Mr. Dupont the
enclosed manuscript, with permission to read it, and a request,
when read, to forward it to you, in expectation that you would
translate it. It is well worthy of publication for the instruction
of onr citizens, being profound, sound, and short. Our legisla-
tors are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their
power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our
natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No
man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights
of another ; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain
him ; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the
necessities of the society ; and this is all the laws should enforce
on him ; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge be-
tween himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to
the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have de-
clared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions ,
and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we
give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one of
those texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and
lighten equally our municipal codes. There is a work, of the
4 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
first order of merit now in the press at Washington, by Destutt
Tracy, on the subject of political economy, which he brings mto
the compass of three hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary
discourse on the origin of the right of property, he coincides
much with the principles of the present manuscript ; but is more
developed, more demonstrative. He promises a future work on
morals, in which I lament to see that he will adopt the princi-
ples of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature ; that the
sense of justice and injustice is not derived from our natural or-
ganization, but founded on convention only. I lament this the
more, as he is unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract
subjects. Assuming the fact, that the earth has been created in
time, and consequently the dogma of final causes, we yield, of
course, to this short syllogism. Man was created for social inter-
covirse ; but social intercourse cannot be maintained without a
sense of justice ; then man must have been created with a sense
of justice. There is an error into which most of the specula-
tors on government have fallen, and which the well-known state
of society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected.
In their hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it
to have commenced in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our
Indians are evidently in that state of nature which has passed
the association of a single family ; and not yet submitted to the
authority of positive laws, or of any acknowledged magistrate.
Every man, with them, is perfectly free to follow his own incli-
nations. But if, in doing this, he violates the rights of another,
if the case be slight, he is punished by the disesteem of his so-
ciety, or, as we say, by public opinion ; if serious, he is toma-
hawked as a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by
the influence of their character only ; and they follow, or not,
as they please, him of whose character for wisdom or war they
have the highest opinion. Hence the origin of the parties
among them adhering to different leaders, and governed by their
advice, not by their command. The Cherokees, the only tribe
I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws,
magistrates, and government, propose a government of represen-
CORRESPONDENCE, 5
tatives, elected from every town. But of all things, they least
think of subjecting themselves to the will of oiae man. This,
the only instance of actual fact within our knowledge, will he
then a beginning by republican, and not by patriarchal or mon
archical government, as speculative writers have generally con-
jectured.
We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment
of our friend Correa, to be minister or envoy of Portugal, here.
This, I hope, will give him to us for life. Nor will it at all inter-
fere with his botanical rambles or journeys. The government of
Portugal is so peaceable and inoflfensive, that it has never any al-
tercations with its friends. If their minister abroad writes them
once a quarter that all is well, they desire no more. I learn,
(though not from Correa himself,) that he thinks of paying us a
visit as soon as he is through his course of lectures. Not to lose
this happiness again by my absence, I have informed him I shall
set out for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and he back the first
week of July. I wish you and he could concert your movements
so us to meet here, and that you would make this your head
quarters. It is a good central point from which to visit your con-
nections ; and you know our practice of placing our guests at their
ease, by showing them we are so ourselves and that we follow
our necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging
unremittingly on their shoulders. I salute you with affectionate
esteem and respect.
TO WILIilAM H. CRAWFORD.
MoNTioET.T.o, June 20, 1816
Dear Sir, — I am about to sin against all discretion, and know-
ingly, by adding to the drudgery of your letter-reading, this ac-
knowledgment of the receipt of your favor of May the 31st, with
the papers it covered. I cannot, however, deny myself the grati-
fication of expressing the satisfaction I have received, not only
from the general statement of affairs at Paris, in yours of Decern-
i JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
ber the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had rot be-
fore received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the
perusal of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk,
on the subject of draw-backs. This most heterogeneous prin-
ciple was transplanted into ours from the British system, by a
man whose mind was really powerful, but chained by native par-
tialities to everything English ; who had formed exaggerated
ideas of the superior perfection of the English constitution, the
superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely believed it
for the good of this country to make them their model in every-
thing ; without considering that what might be wise and good
for a nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated
intercourse with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be
so for one essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from
the abusive governments of the old world.
The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as
may suffice to exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be
advantageous for the whole. But it does not follow, that with a
territory so boundless, it is the interest of the whole to become a
mere city of London, to carry on the business of one half the
world at the expeitse of eternal war with the other half. The
agricultural capacities of our country constitute its distinguishing
feature ; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to that, is more
likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the mimicry
of an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every so-
ciety has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its associa-
tion, and to say to all individuals, that, if they contemplate pur-
suits beyond the limits of these principles, and involving dangers
which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else
for their exercise ; that we want no citizens, and still less ephem-
aral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude them
from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease. Such
is the situation of our country. We have most abundant re-
sources of happiness within ourselves, which we may enjoy in
peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected with
the mania of rambling and gambling, to bring; danger on the
OOERESPONDENOE. 7
great mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home. In
your letter to Fisk, you have fairly stated the alternatives be-
tween which we are to choose : 1, licentious commerce and
gambling speculations for a few, with eternal war for the many ;
or, 2, restricted commerce, peace, and steady occupations for all.
If any Staie in the Union will declare that it prefers separation
with the first alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I
have no hesitation in saying, " let us separate." I would rather
the States should withdraw, which are for unlimited commerce
and war, and confederate with those alone which are for peace
and agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe would join
in sincere amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm's
length, by jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations and
war. No earthly consideration could induce my consent to con-
tract such a debt as England has by her wars for commerce, to
reduce our citizens by taxes to such wretchedness, as that labor-
ing sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they are still unable to af-
ford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much oatmeal or po-
tatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this to feed
the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up one
thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial
speculations. I returned from Europe after our government had
got under way, and had adopted from the British code the law
of draw-backs. I early saw its effects in the jealousies and
vexations of Britain ; and that, retaining it, we must become like
her an essentially warring nation, and meet, in the end, the catas-
trophe impending over her. No one can doubt that this alone
produced the orders of council, the depredations which preceded,
and the war which followed them. Had we carried but our own
jjroduce, and luought back but our own wants, no nation would
liave troubled us. Our commercial dashers, then, have already
cost us so many thousand lives, so many millions of dollars, more
than their persons and all their commerce were worth. When
war was declared, and especially after Massachusetts, who had
produced it, took side with the enemy waging it, I pressed on
some confidej?tial friends in Congress to avail us of tl e happy op-
8 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
portuuity of repealing the draw-back ; and I do rejoice to find
that you are in that sentiment. You are young, and may be m
the way of bringing it into effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and
change of tone, (for there are symptoms of that in Massachusetts,)
may not have obliterated altogether the sense of our late feelings
and sufferings ; may not have induced oblivion of the friends we
have lost, the depredations and conflagratiojis we have suffered,
and the debts we have incurred, and have to labor for through
the lives of the present generation. The earlier the repeal is pro-
posed, the more it will be befriended by all these recollections
and considerations. This is one of three great measures neces-
sary to insure us permanent prosperity. This preserves our
peace. A second should enable us to meet any war, by adopting
the report of the war department, for placing the force of the na-
tion at effectual command ; and a third should insure resources
of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during peace,
and licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic
medium of which we should be possessed at the commencement
of a war, would be a sufficient fund for all the loans we should
need through its continuance ; and if the national bills issued, be
bottomed (as is indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for
their redemption within certain and moderate epochs, and be of
proper denominations for circulation, no interest on them would
be necessary or just, because they would answer to every one the
purposes of the metallic money withdrawn and replaced by them.
But possibly these may be the dreams of an old man, or that
tte occasions of realizing them may have passed away without
return. A government regulating itself by what is wise and just
for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the
few who direct their affairs, has not been seen perhaps, on earth.
Or if it existed, for a moment, at the birth of ours, it would not
be easy to fix the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it
does exist here in a greater degree than anywhere else ; and for
its growth and continuance, as well as for your personal health
and happiness, I offer sincere prayers, with the homage of my
respect and esteem.
CORRESPONDEITOE.
TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAIi.
MoNTiCEt.1,0, July 12, 1816.
Sm, — I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the
copy of the letters on the calling a convention, on which you are
pleased to ask my opinion. I have not been in the habit of
mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of buttoning up my opin-
ions within my own doublet. On the contrary, while in public
service especially, I thought the public entitled to frankness, and
intimately to know whom they employed. But I am now re-
tired : I resign myself, as a passenger, with confidence to those
at present at the helm, and ask but for rest, peace and good will.
The question you propose, on equal representation, has become a
party one, in which I wish to take no public share. Yet, if it be
asked for your own satisfaction only, and not to be quoted before
the public, I have no motive to withhold it, and the less from
you, as it coincides with your own. At the birth of our repub-
lic, I committed that opinion to the world, in the draught of a
constitution annexed to the " Notes on Virginia," in which- a pro-
vision was inserted for a representation permanently equal. The
infancy of the subject at tbat moment, and our inexj:erience of
self-government, occasioned gross departures in that draught from
genuine republican canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy
had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that
we imagined everything republican which was not monarchy.
We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that " govern-
ments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will
of their people, and execute it." Hence, our first constitutions
had really no leading principles in them. But experience and
reflection have but more and more confirmed me in the particular
importance of the equal representation then proposed. On that
point, then, I am entirely in sentiment with your letters ; and
only lament that a copy-right of your pamphlet prevents their
appearance in the newspapers, where alone they would be gen-
erally read, and produce general effect. The present vacancy too,
10 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
of other matter, would give them place in every paper, and bring
the question home to every man's conscience.
But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legisla-
ture, is not the only republican heresy in this first essay of our
revolutionary patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be
agreed that a government is republican in proportion as every
member composing it has his equal voice in the direction of its
concerns, (not indeed in person, which would be impracticable
beyond the limits of a city, or small township, but) by represen-
tatives chosen by himself, and responsible to him at short periods,
and let us bring to the test of this canon every branch of our
constitution.
In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by
less than half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who
do choose. The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for
long terms of irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is
entirely independent of the choice of the people, and of their con-
trol ; his Council equally so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a
wagon. In the Judiciary, the judges of the highest courts are
dependent on none but themselves. In England, where judges
were named and removable at, the will of an hereditary executive,
from which branch most misrule was feared, and has flowed, it
was a great point gained, by fixing them for life, to make them
independent of that executive. But in a government founded on
the public will, this principle operates in an opposite direction,
and against that will. There, too, they were still removable on
a concurrence of the executive and legislative branches. But we
have made them independent of the nation itself. They are
irremovable, but by their own body, for any depravities of con-
duct, and even by their own body for the imbecilities of dotage.
The justices of the inferior courts are self-chosen, are for life, and
perpetuate their own body in succession forever, so that a faction
once possessing themselves of the bench of a county, can never
be broken up, but hold their county in chains, forever indisso-
luble. Yet these justices are the real executive as well as judi-
ciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They tax
US at will ; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all the
executive officers of the county ; name nearly all our military
leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable but by them-
selves. The juries, our judges of all fact, and of law when they
choose it, are not selected by the people, nor amenable to them.
They are chosen by an officer named by the court and execu-
tive. Chosen, did I say ? Picked up by the sheriff from the
loungings of the court yard, after everything respectable has re-
tired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be found ?
Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of our
people. That would oblige even a despot to govern us repub-
licanly. Owing to this spirit, and to nothing in the form of our
constitution, all things have gone well. But this fact, so trium-
phantly misquoted by the enemies of reformation, is not the fruit
of our constitution, but has prevailed in spite of it. Our func-
tionaries have done well, because generally honest men. If any
were not so, they feared to show it.
But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend
them. I do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretend-
ed. Only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexi-
bly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of
the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of
the people. If experience be called for, appeal to that of our
fifteen or twenty governments for forty years, and show me
where the people have done half the mischief in these forty
years, that a single despot would have done in a single year ; or
show half the riots and rebellions, the crimes and the punish-
ments, which have taken place in any single nation, under king-
ly government, during the same period. The true foundation
of republican government is the equal right of every citizen, in
his person and property, and in their management. Try by this,
as a tally, every provision of our constitution, and see if it hangs
directly on the will of the people. Reduce your legislative to a
convenient number for full, but orderly discussion. Let every
man who fights or pays, exercise his just and equal right in their
election. Sul^mit them to approbation or rejection at short in-
1.2 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
tervals. Let the executive be chosen in the same way, and for
the same term, by those whose agent he is to be ; and leave no
screen of a council behind which to skulk from responsibility.
It has been thought that the people are not competent electors
of judges learned in the late. But I do not know that this is
true, and, if doubtful, we should follow principle. In this, as in
many other elections, they would be guided by reputation, which
would not err oftener, perhaps, than the present mode of appoint-
ment. In one State of the Union, at least, it has long been
tried, and with the most satisfactory success. The judges of
Connecticut have been chosen by the people every six months,
for nearly two centuries, and I believe there has hardly ever been
an instance of change ; so powerful is the curb of incessant re-
sponsibility. If prejudice, however, derived from a monarch-
ichal institution, is still to prevail against the vital elective princi-
ple of our own, and if the existing example among ourselves of
periodical election of judges by the people be still mistrusted,
let us at least not adopt the evil, and reject the good, of the Eng-
lish precedent ; let us retain amovability on the concurrence of
the executive and legislative branches, and nomination by the
executive alone. Nomination to office is an executive function
To give it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of the prin-
ciple of the separation of powers. It swerves the members from
correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office themselves, and
to a corrupt barter of votes ; and destroys responsibility by divid-
ing it among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper
place, among executive functions, the principle of the distribution
of power is preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest
force on a single head.
The organization of our county administrations may be thought
more difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself.
Divide the counties into wards of such size as that every citizen
can attend, when called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them
the government of their wards in all things relating to themselves
exclusively. A justice, chosen by themselves, in each, a con-
stable, a military company, a patrol, a school, the care of their
COREESPONDENOE. 13
own poor, their own portion of the public roads, the choice of
one or more jurors to serve in some court, and the delivery,
within their own wards, of their own votes for all elective ofB-
cers of higher sphere, will relieve the county administration of
nearly all its business, will have it better done, and by making
every citizen an acting member of the government, and in the
offices nearest and most interesting to him, will attach him by
his strongest feelings to the independence of his country, and its
republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by every
ward, would constitute the county court, would do its judiciary
business, direct roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates,
and administer all the matters of common interest to the whole
country. These wards, called townships in New England, are
the vital principle of their governments, and have proved them-
selves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for
the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation.
We should thus marshal our government into, 1, the general
federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal ; 2, that of
the State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively ; 3,
the county republics, for the duties and concerns of the county ;
and 4, the ward republics, for the small, and yet numerous and
interesting concerns of the neighborhood ; and in government, as
well as in every other business of life, it is by division and sub-
division of duties alone, that all matters, great and small, can be
managed to perfection. And the whole is cemented by giving
to every citizen, personally, a part in the administration of the
public affairs.
The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2.
Ei^ual representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen
by the people. 4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices,
jurors, and sheriffs elective. 6. "Ward divisions. And 7. Peri-
odical amendments of the constitution.
I have thrown out these as loose heads of amendment, for
consideration and correction ; and their object is to secure self-
government by the republicanism of our constitution, as well as
by the spirit of the people ; and to nourish and perpetuate that
It JEi'FBRSON'S WORKS.
spirit. I am not among those who fear the people. They, and
not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to
preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us
with perpetual debt. We must make our election between
economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into
such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our
drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our
amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of
England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen
hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to
the government for their debts and daily expenses ; and the six-
teenth being insufficient to afi'ord us bread, we must live, as they
now do, on oatmeal and potatoes ; have no time to think, no
means of calling the mismanagers to account ; but be glad to ob-
tain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the
necks of our fellow-suflTerers. Our land-holders, too, like theirs,
retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs,
but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs,
in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity,
exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us
the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public
as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency
of all human governments. A departure from principle in one
instance becomes a precedent for a second ; that second for a
third ; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be
mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for
sinning and suifering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium
in omnia, which some lAilosophers observing to be so general
in this, world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the
abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team
is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretched-
ness and oppression.
Some men look at constitutions with sanctnnonious reveience,
and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be
touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom
more than human, and suppose- what they did to be beyond amend-
CORRESPONDENCE. 15
ment. I knew that age well ; I belonged to it, and labored with
it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the pres-
ent, but without the experience of the present ; and forty years
of experience in government is worth acentury of book-reading ;
and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the
dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried
changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfec-
tions had better be borne with ; because, when once known, we
accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of cor-
recting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institu-
tions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human
mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as
new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and
opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions
must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might
as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him
when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regi-
men of their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea
which has lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, in-
stead of wisely yielding to the gradual change of circumstances,
of favoring progressive accommodation to progressive improve-
ment, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves behind
steady habits, and obliged their subjects to seek through blood
and violence rash and ruinous innovations, which, had they been
referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of th(3
nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary forms.
Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one
generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself,
and of ordering its own affairs. Let us, as our sister States have
done, avail ourselves of our reason and experienr.e, to correct the
crude essays of our first and unexperienced, although wise, vir-
tuous, and well-meaning councils. And lastly, let us provide in
our constitution for its revision at stated periods. What these
periods should be, nature herself indicates. By the European
tables of mortality, of the adults living at any one moment of
time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years. At the
16 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
end of that period then, a new majority is come into place ; or;
in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as inde-
pendent of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone
before. It has then, like them, a right to choose for itself the
form of government it believes most promotive of its own happi-
ness ; consequently, to accommodate to the circumstances in
which it finds itself, that received from its predecessors ; and it
is for the peace and good of mankind, that a solemn opportunity
of doing this every nineteen or twenty years, should be provided
by the constitution ; so that it may be handed on, with periodi-
cal repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of time, if
anything human can so long endure. It is now forty years since
the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same tables in-
form us, that, within that period, two-thirds of the adults then
living are now dead. Have then the remaining third, even if
they had the wish, the right to hold in obedience to their will,
and to laws heretofore made by them, the other two-thirds, who,
with themselves, compose the present mass of adults ? If they
have not, who has ? The dead ? But the dead have no rights.
They are nothing ; and nothing cannot own something. Where
there is no substance, there can be no accident. This "^orporeal
globe, and everything upon it, belong to its present corporeal
inhabitants, during their generation. They alone have a right
to direct what is the concern of themselves alone, and to declare
the law of that direction ; and this declaration can only be made
by their majority. That majority, then, has a right to depute
representatives to a convention, and to make the constitution
what they think will be the best for themselves. But how col-
lect their voice ? This is the real difficulty. If invited by pri-
vate authority, or county or district meetings, these divisions are
so large that few will attend ; and their voice will be imperfectly,
or falsely pronounced. Here, then, would be one of the advan-
tages of the ward divisions I have ptoposed. The mayor of
every ward, on a question like the present, would call his ward
together, take the simple yea or nay of its members, convey these
to the county court, who would hand on those of all Hs wards
OORRESPONDENOE. 17
to the proper general authority ; and the voice of the whole peo-
ple would be thus fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed, dis-
cussed, and decided by the common reason of the society. If
this avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it will make itself
heard through that of force, and we shall go on, as other nations
are doing, in the endless circle of oppression, rebelUon, reform-
ation ; and oppression, rebellion, reformation, again ; and so on
forever.
These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among
men, and of the principles by which alone we may prevent our
own from falling into the same dreadful track. T have given
them at greater length than your letter called for. But I cannot
say things by halves ; and I confide them to your honor, so to
use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the public papers.
If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done that of
equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them
to yourself as the effusions of withered age and useless time. I
shall, with not the less truth, assure you of my great respect and
consideration.
TO JOHN TAYLOR.
MoNrrcELr.o. July 16, 181B,
Dear Sik, — Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to ac-
knowledge a copious supply of the turnip seed requested. Be-
sides taking care myself, I shall endeavor again to commit it to
the depository of the neighborhood, generally found to be the
best precaution against losing a good thing. I will add a word
on the political part of our letters. I believe we do not differ on
either of the points you suppose. On education certainly not ;
of which the proofs are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge,
proposed near forty years ago, and my uniform endeavors, to this
day, to get our counties divided into wards, one of the principal
objects of which is, the establishment of a primary school in
each. But education not being a branch of municipal govern-
ment, but, like the other arts and sciences, an accident only, I did
vol.. VII. 2
18 JEFFEESOIf'S WORKS.
not place it, with election, as a fundamental member i i the struc-
ture of government. Nor, I believe, do we differ as to the county
courts. I acknowledge the value of f his institution ; that it is in
truth our principal executive and judiciary, and that it does
much for little pecuniary reward. It is their self-appointment I
wish to correct ; to find some means of breaking up a cabal,
when such a one gets possession of the bench. When this takes
place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies, because its pow-
ers are so various, and exercised on everything most immediately
around us. And how many instances have you and I known of
these monopolies of coimty administration ? I knew a county
in which a particular family (a numerous one) got possession of
the bench, and for a whole generation never admitted a man
on it who was not of its clan or connexion. I know a county
now of .one thousand and five hundred militia, of which sixty
are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom twenty
are federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large
and populous districts in it without a justice, because without a
federalist for appointment ; the militia are as disproportionably
under federal officers. And there is no authority on earth which
can break up this junto, short of a general convention. The re-
maining one thousand four hundred and forty, free, fighting, and
paying citizens, are governed by men neither of their choice or
confidence, and without a hope of relief. They are certainly
excluded from the blessings of a free government for life, and in-
definitely, for aught the constitution has provided. This solecism
may be called anything but republican, and ought undoubtedly
to be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship and re-
spect.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR PLUMEK.
JloNTiCKLUi, July 21. T8I6.
I thank you, Sir, for the copy you have been so good as to
send me, of your late speech to the Legislature of your State
which I have read a second time with great pleasure, as I had be-
CORRESPONDENCE. 19
fore done in the public papers. It is replete with sound princi-
ples, and truly republican. Some articles, too, are worthy of pe-
culiar notice. The idea that institutions established for the use
of the nation cannot be touched nor modified, even to make them
answer their end, because of rights gratuitously supposed in those
employed to manage them in trust for the public, may perhaps
be a salutary provision against the abuses of a monarch, but is
most absurd against the nation itself. Yet our lawyers and
priests generally inculcate this doctrine, and suppose that preced-
ing generations held the earth more freely than we do ; had a
right to impose laws on us, unalterable by ourselves, and that we,
in like manner, can make laws and impose burthens on future
generations, which they will have no right to alter ; in fine, that
the earth belongs to the dead and not the living. I remark also
the phenomenon of a chief magistrate recommending the reduc-
tion of his own compensation. This is a solecism of which the
wisdom of our late Congress cannot be accused. I, however,
place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be
feared. We see in England the consequences of the want of it.
their laborers reduced to live on a penny in the shilling of their
earnings, to give up bread, and resort to oatmeal and potatoes foi
food ; and their landholders exiling themselves to live in penury
and obscurity abroad, because at home the government must have
all the clear profits of their land. In fact, they see the fee simple
of the island transferred to the public creditors, all its profits
going to them for the interest of their debts. Our laborers and
landholders must come to this also, unless they severely adhere
to the economy you recommend. I salute you with entire es-
teem and respect.
TO DOCTOK LOGAN.
MoNTiCELLO, July 23, 1816.
Deab Sir, — I have received and read with great pleasure the
account you have been so kind as to send me of the interview
20 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
between the Emperor Alexander and Mr. Clarkson, which I novr
return, as it is in manuscript. It shows great condescension of
character on the part of the Emperor, and power of mind also, to
be able to abdicate the artificial distance between himself and
other good, able men, and to converse as on equal ground. This
conversation too, taken with his late Christian league, seeins to
bespeak in him something like a sectarian piety ; his character is
undoubtedly good, and the world, I think, may expect good effects
from it. I have no doubt that his firmness in favor of France,
after the deposition of Bonaparte, has saved that country from
evils still more severe than she is suffering, and perhaps even from
partition. I sincerely wish that the history of the secret proced-
ings at Vienna may become known, and may reconcile to our
good opinion of him his participation in the demolition of ancient
and independent States, transferring them and their inhabitants
as farms and stocks of cattle at a market to other owners, and
even taking a part of the spoil to himself. It is possible to sup-
pose a case excusing this, and my partiality for his character en-
courages me to expect it, and to impute to others, known to have
no moral scruples, the crimes of that conclave, who, under pre-
tence of punishing the atrocities of Bonaparte, reached them
themselves, and proved that with equal power they were equally
flagitious. But let us turn with abhorrence from these sceptered
Scelerats, and disregarding our own petty diffences of opinion
about men and measures, let us cling in mass to our country and
to one another, and bid defiance, as we can if united, to the plun-
dering combinations of the old world. Present me affectionately
and respectfully to Mrs. Logan, and accept the assurance of mv
friendship and best wishes.
TO MB. DELAPLAINE.
MoNTroELT.o, July 26, I81S.
Deak Sir, — In compliance with the request of your letter of
the 6th inst., with respect to Peyton Randolph, I have to ob.serve
CORRESPONDENCE. 21
that the difference of age between him and myself admitted my
knowing little of his early life, except what I accidentally caught
from occasional conversations. I was a student at college when
he was already Attorney General at the bar, and a man of es-
tablished years ; and I had no intimacy with him until I went to
the bar myself, when, I suppose, he must have been upwards of
forty ; from that time, and especially after I became a member
of the legislature, until his death, our intimacy was cordial, and
I was with him when he died. Under these circumstances, I
have committed to writing as many incidents of his life as memory
enabled me to do, and to give faith to the many and excellent
qualities he possessed, I have mentioned those minor ones which
he did not possess ; considering true history, in which all will be
believed, as preferable to unqualified panegyric, in which nothing
is believed. I avoided, too, the mention of trivial incidents,
which, by not distinguishing, disparage a character ; but I have
not been able to state early dates. Before forwarding this paper
to you, I received a letter from Peyton Randolph, his great
nephew, repeating the request you had made. I therefore put
the paper under a blank cover, addressed to you, unsealed,
and sent it to Peyton Randolph, that he might see what dates
as well as what incidents might be collected, supplementary to
mine, and correct any which I had inexactly stated ; circum-
stances may have been misremembered, but nothing, I think, ot
substance. This account of Peyton Randolph, therefore, you
may expect to be forwarded by his nephew.
You requested me when here, to communicate to you the par-
ticulars of two transactions in which I was myself an agent, to
wit : the coup de main of Arnold on Richmond, and Tarleton's
on Charlottesville. I now enclose them, detailed with an exact-
ness on which you may rely with an entire confidence. Buf,
having an insuperable aversion to be drawn into controversy in
the public papers, I must request not to be quoted either as to
these or the account of Peyton Randolph. Accept the assur-
ances of my esteem and respect.
22 JEL-FEKSON S WORKS.
TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR.
MoNTicKi-i.o, July SI. 1816.
Dear Sib, — Your favor of November 1st came but lately to
my hand. It covered a prospectus of your code of health and
longevity, a great and useful work, which I shall be happy to
see brought to a conclusion. Like our good old Franklin, your
labors and science go all to the utilities of human life.
I reciprocate congratulations with you sincerely on the restora-
tion of peace between our two nations. And why should there
have been war ? for the party to which the blame is to be imput-
ed, we appeal to the " Exposition of the causes and character of
the war," a pamphlet which, we are told, has gone through some
editions with you. If that does not justify us, then the blame is
ours. But let all this be forgotten ; and let both parties now
count soberly the value of mutual friendship. I am satisfied both
will find that no advantage either can derive from any act of in-
justice whatever, will be of equal value with those flowing from
friendly intercourse. Both ought to wish for peace and cordial
friendship ; we, because you can do us more harm than any other
nation ; and you, because we can do you more good than any
other. Our growth is now so well established by regular enu-
merations through a course of forty years, and the same grounds
of continuance so likely to endure for a much longer period, that,
speaking in round numbers, we may safely call ourselves twenty
millions in twenty years, and forty millions in forty years. Many
of the statesmen now living saw the commencement of the first
term, and many now living will see the end of the second. It is
not then a mere concern of posterity ; a third of those now in life
will see that day. Of what importance then to you must such a
nation be, whether as friends or foes. But is their friendship, dear
Sir, to be obtained by the irritating policy of fomenting among
us party discord, and a ^ teasing opposition; by bribing traitors,
vvhose sale of themselves proves they would sell their pm-chasers
also, if their treacheries were worth a price ? How much cheaper
would it be, how much easier, more honorable, more magnani-
CORRESPONDENCE. 23
mous and secure, to gain the government itself, by a moral, a
friendly, and respectful course of conduct, which is all they
would ask for a cordial and faithful return. I know the difficul-
ties arising from the irritation, the exasperation produced on both
sides by the late war. It is great with you, as I judge from your
newspapers ; and greater with us, as I see myself. The reason
lies in the different degrees in which the war has acted on us.
To your people it ,has been a matter of distant history only, a
mere war in the cafnatic ; with us it has reached the bosom of
every man, woman and child. The maritime parts have felt it
in the conflagration of their houses, and towns, and desolation
of their farms ; the borderers in the massacres and scalpings of
their husbands, wives and children ; and the middle parts in their
personal labors and losses in defence of both froiitiers, and the re-
volting scenes they have there witnessed. It is not wonderful
then, if their irritations are extreme. Yet time and prudence on
the part of the two governments may get over these. Manifesta-
tions of cordiality between them, friendly and kind offices made
visible to the people on both sides, will mollify their feelings,
and second the wishes of their functionaries to cultivate peace,
and promote mutual interest. That these dispositions have been
«=trong on our part, in every administration from the first to ths
present one, that we would at any time have gone our full half-
way to meet them, if a single step in advance had been taken hy
the other party, I can affirm of my own intimate knowledge of
the fact. During the first year of my own administration, I
thought I discovered in the conduct of Mr. Addington some
marks of comity towards us, and a willingness to extend to us
the decencies and duties observed towards other nations. My
desire to catch at this, and to improve it for the benefit of my
own country, induced me, in addition to the official declarations
from the Secretary of State, to write with my own hand to Mr.
King, then our Minister Plenipotentiary at London, in the follow-
ing words : " I avail myself of this occasion to assure you of
my perfect satisfaction with the manner in which you have con-
uucted the several matters committed to you by us ; and to ex-
24 JEFFERSOJT'S WORKS.
press my hope that through your agency, we may be able to re-
move everything inauspicious to a cordial friendship between this
country, and the one in which you are stationed ; a friendship
dictated by too many considerations not to be felt by the wise
and the dispassionate of both nations. It is, therefore, with the
sincerest .pleasure I have observed on the part- of the British gov-
ernment various manifestations of a just and friendly disposition
towards us ; 'we wish to cultivate peace and friendship with all
nations, believing that course most conducive to the welfare of
our own ; it is natural that these friendships should bear some
proportion to the common interests of the parties. The interest-
ing relations between Great Britain and the United States are
certainly of the first order, and as such are estimated, and will be
faithfully cultivated by us. These sentiments have been com-
municated to you from time to time, in the official correspond-
ence of the Secretary of State ; but I have thought it might not
be unacceptable to be assured that they perfectly concur with my
own personal convictions, both in relation to yourself, and the
country in which you are."
My expectation was that Mr. King would show this lettei to
Mr. Addington, and that it would be received by him as an over-
ture towards a cordial understanding between the two countries.
He left the ministry, however, and I never heard more of it, and
certainly never perceived any good eifect from it. I know that
in the present temper, the boastful, the insolent, and the menda-
cious newspapers on both sides, will present serious impediments.
Ours will be insulting your public authorities, and boasting of
victories ; and yours will not be sparing of provocations and
abuses of us. But if those at our helms could not place them-
selves above these pitiful notices, and throwing aside all personal
feelings, look only to the interests of their nations, they would be
unequal to the trusts confided to them. I am equally confident,
on our part, in the administration now in place, as in that which
will succeed it ; and that if friendship is not hereafter sincerely
cultivated, it will not be their fault. I will not, however, dis-
guise that the settlement of the practice of impressing our citi-
CORRESPONDENCE. 25
zens is a sirie qua non, a preliminary, withoiit which treaties of
peace are but truces. But it is impossible that reasonable dispo-
sitions on both parts should not remove this stumbling block,
which unremoved, will be an eternal obstacle to peace, and lead
finally to the deletion of the one or the other nation. The reg-
ulations necessary to keep your own seamen to yourselves are
those which our interests would lead us to adopt, and that inter-
est would be a guarantee of their observance ; and the transfer
of these questions ffom the cognizance of their naval command-
ers to the governments themselves, would be but an act of mutual
as well as of self-respect
I did not mean, when I began my letter, to have indulged my
pen so far on subjects with which I have long ceased to have
connection ; but it may do good, and I will let it go, for although
what I write is from no personal privity with the views or wishes
of our government, yet believing them to be what they ought to
be, and confident in their wisdom and integrity, I am sure I
hazard no deception in what I have said of them, and I shall be
happy indeed if some good shall result to both our countries,
from this renewal of our correspondence and ancient friendship.
1 recall with great pleasure the days of our former intercourse,
personal and epistolary, and can assure you with truth that in no
instant of time has there been any abatement of my great esteem
and respect for you.
TO MB. ADAMS.
MONTICKI.LO, AuSfUSt. I. ISl.fl.
Dear Sib, — Your two philosophical letters of May 4th and
6th have been too long in my carton of " letters to be an-
swered." To the question, indeed, on the utility of grief, no an-
swer remains to be given. You have exhausted the subject. I
see that, with the other evils of Ufe, it is destined to temper the
cup we are to drink.
26 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Two trns by Jore's high throne have ever stood,
The source of evil one, and one of good ;
From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,
Blessings to these, to those distributes ills ;.
To most he mingles both.
Putting to myself your question, •would I agree to live mj
seventy-three years over again forever ? I hesitate to say. With
Chew's limitations from twenty-five to sixty, I would say yes ;
and I might go further back, but not come lower down. For,
at the latter period, with most of us, the powers of life are sensi-
bly on the wane, sight becomes dim, hearing dull, memory con-
stantly enlarging its frightful blank and parting with all we have
ever seen or known, spirits evaporate, bodily debility creeps on
palsying every limb, and so faculty after faculty quits us, and
where then is life ? If, in its full rigcr, of good as well as evil,
your friend Vassall could doubt its value, it must be purely a neg-
ative quantity when its evils alone remain. Yet I do not go
into his opinion entirely. I do not agree that an age of pleasure
is no compensation for a moment of pain. 1 think, with you,
that life is a fair matter of account, and the balance often, nay
generally, in its favor. It is not indeed easy, by calculation of
intensity and time, to apply a common measure, or to fix the
par between pleasure and pain ; yet it exists, and is measurable.
On the question, for example, whether to be cut for the stone r
The young, with a longer prospect of years, think these over-
balance the pam of the operation. Dr. Franklin, at the age of
eighty, thought his residuum of life not worth that price. 1
should have thought with him, even taking the stone out of the
scale. There is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as
well as ourselves, when it is reasonable we should drop off, and
make room for another growth. When we have lived our gener-
ation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. I enjoy
good health ; I am happy in what is around me, yet I assure you
I am ripe for leaving all, this year, this day, this hour. If it
could be doubted whether we would go back to twenty-five,
bow can it be whether we would go forward from seventy -three }
COEEESPONDENOE. 27
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all humai. contem-
plations the most abhorrent is body without mind. Perhaps,
however, I might accept of time to read Grimm before I go.
Fifteen volumes of anecdotes and incidents, within the compass
of my own time and cognizance, written by a man of genius, of
taste, of point, an acquaintance, the measure and traverses of
whose mind I know, could not fail to turn the scale in favor of
life during their perusal. I must write to Ticknor to add it to
my catalogue, and hold on till it comes. There is a Mr. Vander-
kemp of New York, a correspondent, I believe, of yours, with
whom I have exchanged some letters without knowing who he
is. Will you tell me ? I know nothing of the history of the
Jesuits you mention in four volumes. Is it a good one ? I dis-
like, with you, their restoration, because it marks a retrograde
step from light towards darkness. We shall have our follies
without doubt. Some one or more of them will always be
afloat. But ours will be the follies of enthusiasm, not of bigotry,
not of Jesuitism. Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid
minds ; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and
free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be
a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. Old
Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along
by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings,
as she can. What a colossus shall we be when the southern
continent comes up to our mark ! What a stand will it secure as
a ralliance for the reason and freedom of the globe ! I like the
dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good
night ! I will dream on, always fancying that Mrs. Adams and
yourself are by my side marking the progress and the obliqui-
ties of ages and countries.
TO MBS. M. HARBISON SMITH.
MoNTio'isLi.o, August 6, 1816.
I have received, dear Madam, your very friendly letter of Jidy
21st, and assure you that I feel with deep sensibility its kind ex-
28 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
pressioi^s tt wards myself, and the more as from a person than
whom no others could be more in sympathy with my own af-
fections. I often call to mind the occasions of knowing your
worth, which the societies of Washington furnished ; and none
more than those derived from your much valued visit to Monti-
cello. I recognize the same motives of goodness in the solici-
tude you express on the rumor supposed to proceed from a letter
of mine to Charles Thomson, on the subject of the Christian re-
ligion. It is true that, in writing to the translator of the Bible
and Testament, that subject was mentioned ; but equally so that
no adherence to any particular mode of Christianity "was there
expressed, nor any change of opinions suggested. A change
from what ? the priests indeed have heretofore thought proper to
ascribe to me religious, or rather anti-religious sentiments, of
their own fabric, but such as soothed their resentments against the
act of Virginia for establishing religious freedom. They wished
him to be thought atheist, deist, or devil, who could advocate
freedom from their religious dictations. But I have ever thought
religion a concern purely between our God and our consciences,
for which we were accountable to him, and not to the priests.
I never told my own religion, nor scrutinized that of another. I
never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change anoth-
er's creed. I have ever judged of the religion of others by their
lives, and by this test, my dear Madam, I have been satisfied
yours must be an excellent one, to have produced a life of such
exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not
from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same
test the world must judge me. But this does not satisfy the
priesthood. They must have a positive, a declared assent to all
their interested absurdities. My opinion is that there would
never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest.
The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral
systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, re-
volts those who think for themselves, and who read in that sys-
tem only what is really there. These, therefore, they brand with
such nick-names as their enmity choses gratuitously to impute.-
CORRESPONDENCE.
29
I have left the world, in silence, to judge of causes from their
effects ; and I am consoled in this course, my dear friend, when
I perceive the candor with which I am judged by your justice
and discernment ; and that, notwithstanding the slanders of the
saints, my fellow citizens have thought me worthy of trusts.
The imputations of irreligion having spent their force ; they think
an imputation of change might now be turned to account as a
bolster for their duperies. I shall leave them, as heretofore, to
grope on in the dark.
Our family at Monticello is all in good health ; Ellen speaking
of you with affection, and Mrs. Randolph always regretting the
accident which so far deprived her of the happiness of your for-
mer visit. She still cherishes the hope of some future renewal
of that kindness ; in which we all join her, as in the assurances
of affectionate attachment and respect.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JErrEHSON.
Quivcv, August 9, 1816.
Deab Sir, — The biography of Mr. Vander Kemp would re-
quire a volume which I could not write if a million were offered
me as a reward for the work. After a learned and scientific ed-
ucation he entered the army in Holland, and served as captain,
with reputation ; but loving books more than arms he resigned
his commission and became a preacher. My acquaintance with
him commenced at Leydeh in 1790. He was then minister of
the Menonist congregation, the richest in Europe ; in that city,
where he was celebrated' as the most elegant writer in the Dutch
language, he was the intimate friend of Luzac and De Gyse-
caar. In 1788, when the King of Prussia threatened Holland
with invasion, his party insisted on his taking a command in the
army of defence, and he was appointed to the command of the
most exposed and most important post in the seven provinces.
He was soon surrounded by the Prussian forces ; but he defended
his forti'^ss with a prudence, fortitude, patience, and perseverance,
30 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
which were admired by all Europe ; till, abandoned by his na-
tion, destitute of provisions and ammunition, still refusing to sur-
render, he was offered the most honorable capitulation. He ac-
cepted it ; was offered very advantageous proposals ; but despair-
ing of the liberties of his country, he retired to Antwerp, deter-
mined to emigrate to New York ; wrote to me in London, re-
questing letters of introduction. I sent him letters to Governor
Clinton, and several others of our little great men. His history
in .this country is equally curious and affecting. He left property
in Holland, which the revolutions there have anr.''^'lited ; and I
fear is now pinched with poverty. His head is deeply learned
and his heart is pure. I scarcely know a more amiable character.
*jfc Jt. Jt. Jfc. .It. -M-
T^ TP 'Tr TV" ^r "re"
He has written to me occasionally, and I have answered his
letters in great haste. You may well suppose that such a man
has not always been able to understand our American politics.
Nor have I. Had he been as great a master of our language as
he was of his own, he would have been at this day one of the
most conspicuous characters in the United States.
So much for Vander Kemp ; now for your letter of August 1st.
Your poet, the Ionian I suppose, ought to have told us whether
Jove, in the distribution of good and evil from his two urns, ob-
serves any rule of equity or not ; whether he thunders out flames
of eternal fire on the many, and power, and glory, and felicity on
the few, without any consideration of justice ?
Let us state a few questions sub rosd.
1. Would you accept a life, if offered you, of equal pleasure
and pain ? For example. One million of moments of pleasure, and
one million of moments of pain ! (1,000,000 moments of pleas-
use= 1,000,000 moments of pain.) Suppose the pleasure as ex-
quisite as. any in life, and the pain as exquisite as any ; for ex-
ample, stone-gravel, gout,, headache, earache, toothache, cholic,
&c. I would not. I would rather be blotted out.
2f Would ■ you accept a life of one year of incessant gout,
headache, &c., for seventy-two years of such life as you have
enjoyed? I would not. (One year of cholic = seventy-two of
CORRESPONDEITCE. 31
Boule de Savon ; pretty, but unsubstantial.) I had rather be ex-
tinguished. You may vary these Algebraical equations at pleas-
ure and without end. All, this ratiocination, calculation, call it
what you will, is founded on the supposition of no future state.
Promise me eternal life free from pain, although in all other re-
spects no better than our present terrestrial existence, I know not
how many thousand years of Smithfield fevers I would not en-
dure to obtain it. In fine, without the supposition of a future
state, mankind and this globe appear to me the most sublime and
beautiful bubble, and bauble, that imagination can conceive.
Let us then wish for immortality at all hazards, and trust the
Ruler with his skies. I do ; and earnestly wish for his com-
mands, which to the utmost of my power shall be implicitly and
piously obeyed.
It is worth while to live to read Grimm, whom I have read ;
and*-La Harpe and Mademoiselle D'Espinasse the fair friend of
D'Alembert, both of whom Grimm characterizes very distinguish-
ed, and are, I am told, in print. I have not seen them, but hope
soon to have them.
My history of the Jesuits is not elegantly written, but is sup-
ported by unquestionable authorities, is very particular and very
horrible. Their restoration is indeed a " step towards darkness,"
cruelty, perfidy, despotism, death and ! I wish we were
out of " danger of bigotry and Jesuitism" ! May we be " a bar-
rier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism"! " What a
colossus shall we be" ! But will it not be of brass, iron and
clay? Your taste is judicious in liking better the dreams of the
future, than the history of the past. Upon this principle I proph-
ecy that you and I shall soon meet, and be better friends thau
ever. So wishes, J- A.
TO MB. ISAAC H. TEFFANY.
MoNTicELLO, A'ligiist 26, 1816.
SiK, — In answer to your inquiry as to the merits of Gillies'
translation of the Politics of Aristotle, I can only say that it has
32 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
the reputation of being preferable to Ellis', the only rival trans-
lation into English. I have never seen it myself, and therefore
do not speak of it from my own knowledge. Bat so different
was the style of society then, and with those people, from what
it is now and with lis, that I think little edification can be ob-
tained from their writings on the subject of government. They
had just ideas of the value of personal liberty, but none at all of
the structure of government best calculated to preserve it. They
knew no medium between a democracy (the only pure republic,
but impracticable beyond the hmits of a town) and an abandon-
ment of themselves t® an aristocracy, or a tyranny independent of
the people. It seems not to have occurred that where the citizens
cannot meet to transact their business in person, they alone have
the right to choose the agents who shall transact it ; and that in
this way a republican, or popular government, of the second grade
of purity, may be exercised over any extent of country. The
full experiment of a government democratical, but representative,
was and is still reserved for us. The idea (taken, indeed, from
the little specimen formerly existing in the English constitution,
but now lost) has been carried by us, more or less, inlo all our
legislative and executive departments ; but it has not yet, by any
of us, been pushed into all the ramifications of the system, so
far as to leave no authority existing not responsible to the people ;
whose rights, however, to the exercise and fruits of their own
industry, can never be protected against the selfishness of rulers
not subject to their control at short periods. The mtroduction
of this new principle of representative democracy has rendered
useless almost everything written before on the structure of gov-
ernment ; and, in a great measure, relieves our regret, if the politi-
cal writings of Aristotle, or of any other ancient, have been lost,
or are unfaithfully rendered or explained to us. My most ear-
nest wish is to see the republican element of popular control
pushed to the maximum of its practicable exercise. I shall then
believe that our government may be pure and perpetual. Ac-
cept my respectful salutations
OOEEESPOKDENCE. 33
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEBSON.
QuiNCT, September 3, 1816.
Dear Sib, — Dr. James Freeman is a learned, ingenious, hon-
est and benevolent man, who wishes to see President Jefferson,
and requests me to introduce him. If you would introduce some
of your friends to me. I could, with more confidence, introduce
mine to you. He is a Christian, but not a Pythagorian, a Pla-
tonic, or a Philonic Christian. You will ken him, and he will
ken you ; but you may depend he will never betray, deceive, or
injure you.
Without hinting to him anything which had passed between
you and nre, I asked him your question, "What are the uses of
grief?" He stared, and said " The question was new to him."
All he could say at present was, that he had known, in his own
parish, more than one instance of ladies who had been thoughtless,
modish, extravagant in a high degree, who, upon the death of
a child, had become thoughtful, modest, humble; as prudent,
amiable women as any he had known. Upon this I read to him
your letters and mine upon this subject of grief, with which he
seemed to be pleased. You see I was not afraid to trust him,
and you need not be.
Since I am, accidentally, invited to write to you, I may add a
few words upon pleasures and pains of life. Vassall thought, an
hundred years, nay, an eternity of pleasure, was no compensa-
tion for one hour of bihous cholic. Read again Molliores Spsyke,
act 2d, scene 1st, on the subject of grief. And read in another
place, " on est paye de mille maux, par un heureux moment."
Thus differently do men speak of pleasures and pains. Now,
Sir, I will tease you with another question. What have been
the abuses of grief ?
In answer to this question, I doubt not you might write an
hundred volumes. A few hints may convince you that the sub-
ject is ample.
1st. The death of Socrates excited a general sensibility of
grief at Athens, in Attica, and in all Greece. Plato and Xeho-
VOL. VII. 3
34 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
phon, two of his disciples, took advantage of that sentiment, by
emj)ioying their encViauting style to represent their master to be
greater and better than he probably was ; and what have been
the effects of Socratic, Platonic, which were Pythagorian, which
was Indian philosophy, in the world ?
2d. The death of Caesar, tyrant as he was, spread a general
compassion, which always includes grief, among the Romans.
The scoundrel Mark Antony availed himself of this momentary
grief to destroy the republic, to establish the empire, and to pro-
scribe Cicero.
3d. But to skip over all ages and nations for the present, and
descend to our own times. The death of Washington diffused a
general grief. The old tories, the hyperfederalists, the specula-
tors, set up a general howl. Orations, prayers, sermons, mock
funerals, were all employed, not that they loved Washington,
but to keep in countenance the funding and banking system ; and
to cast into the background and the shade, all others who had
been concerned in the service of their country in the Revolution.
4th. The death of Hamilton, under all its circumstances, pro-
duced a general grief His most determined enemies did not
like to get rid of him in that way. They pitied, too, his widow
and children. His party seized the moment of public feeling to
come forward with funeral orations, and printed panegyrics, re-
inforced with mock funerals and solemn grimaces, and all this
by people who have buried Otis, Sam Adams, Hancock, and
Gerry, in comparative obscurity. And why ? Merely to disgrace
the old Whigs, and keep the funds and banks in countenance.
5th. The death of Mr. Ames excited a general regret. His
long consumption, his amiable character, and reputable talents,
had attracted a general interest, and his death a general
mourning. His party made the most of it, by processions,
orations, and a mock funeral. And why ? To glorify the
Tories, to abash the Whigs, and maintain the reputation of
fimds, banks, and speculation. And all this was done in honor
of that insignificant boy, by people who have let a Dance a
Gerry, and a Dexter, go to their graves without notice.
COERESPONDENCE. 35
6th. I almost shxidder at the thought of alluding to the most
fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of man-
kind has preserved — The Cross. Consider what calamities that
engine of grief has produced ! With the rational respect which
is due to it, knavish priests have added prostitutions of it, that
fill, or might fill, the blackest and bloodiest pages of human
history.
I am with ancient friendly sentiments,
TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
MoNTicELLO, September 5, 1816.
Sir, — ^Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That
which I wrote to you under the address of H. Tompkinson, was
intended for the author of the pamphlet you were so kind as to
send me, and therefore, in your hands, found its true destination.
But I must beseech you. Sir, not to admit a possibility of its
being published. Many good people will revolt from its doc-
trines, and my wish is to offend nobody ; to leave to those who
are to live under it, the settlement'of their own constitution, and
to pass in peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions
are sound, they will occur to others, and will prevail by their
own weight, without the aid of names, I am glad to see that
the Staunton meeting has rejected the idea of a limited conven-
tion. The article, however, nearest my heart, is the division of
counties into wards. These will be pure and elementary repub-
lics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes the State,
and will make of the whole a true democracy as to the business
of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern. The
aifairs of the larger sections, of counties, of States, and of the
Union, not admitting personal transaction by the people, will be
delegated to agents elected by themselves ; and representation
will thus be substituted, where personal action becomes imprac-
ticable. Yet, even over these representative organs, should they
become corrupt and perverted, the division into wards constitut-
S6 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
ing the people, in their wards, a regularly organized power, en-
ables them by that organization to crush, regularly and peace-
ably, the usurpations of their unfaithful agents, and rescues them
from the dreadful necessity of doing it insurrectionally. In this
way we shall be as republican as a large society can be ; and
secure the continuance of purity in our government, by the salu-
tary, peaceable, and regular control of the people. No other
depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did not
end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those com-
mitted to their charge. George the III. in execution of the trust
confided to him, has, within his own day, loaded the inhabitants
of Great Britain with debts equal to the whole fee-simple value
of their island, and imder pretext of governing it, has alienated
its whole soil to creditors who could lend money to be lavished
on priests, pensions, plunder and perpetual war. This would not
have been so, had the people retained organized means of acting
on their agents. In this example then, let us read a lesson for
ourselves, and not " go and do likewise."
Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told,
that on the question of equal representation, our fellow citizens in
some sections of the State claim peremptorily a right of repre-
sentation for their slaves. Principle will, in this, as in most other
cases, open the way for us to correct conclusion. Were our State
a pure democracy, in which all its inhabitants should meet together
to transact all their business, there would yet be excluded from
their deliberations, 1, infants, until arrived at years of discretion.
2. Women, who, to prevent depravation of morals and ambiguity
of issue, could not mix promiscuously in th§ public; meetings of
men. 3. Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of things with
us takes away the rights of will and of property. Those then
who have no will could be permitted to exercise none in the pop-
ular assembly ; and of course, could delegate none to an agent
in a representative assembly. The business, in the first case,
would be done by qualified citizens only. It is true, that in
the general constitution, our State is allowed a larger representa-
tion on account of its slaves. But every one knows, that that
OOREESPONDENOE. 37
constitution was a matter of compromise ; a capitulation between
conflicting interests and opinions. In truth, the condition of dif-
ferent descriptions of inhabitants in any coimtry is a matter of
municipal arrangement, of which no foreign country has a right
to take notice. All its inhabitants are men as to them. Thus, in
the New England States, none have the powers of citizens but
those whom they cbW. freemen ; and none axe freemen until ad-
mitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the Gen-
eral Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum
of representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no
powers as citizens ; yet, in representation in the General Govern-
ment, they count in the proportion of three to five ; and so also
in taxation. Whether this is equal, is not here the question. It
is a capitulation of discordant sentiments and circumstances, and
is obligatory on that ground. But this view shows there is no
inconsistency in claiming representation for them for the other
States, and refusing it within our own. Accept the renewal of
assurances of my respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTiOELLO, October 14, 1816.
Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well ex-
plained the uses of grief. That of September the 3d, with equal
truth, adduces instances of its abuse ; and when we put into the
same scale these abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even
the uses of grief cost us, we may conside;r its value in the eco-
nomy of the human being, as equivocal at least. Those afflictions
cloud too great a portion of life to find a counterpoise in any
benefits derived from its uses. For setting aside its paroxysms
on the occasions of special bereavements, all the latter years of
aged men are overshadowed with its gloom. Whither, for in-
stance, can you and I look without seeing the graves of those
we have known ? And whom can we call up, of our early com
pamons, who has not left us to regret his loss ? This, indeed
38 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
may be one of the salutary effects of grief; inasmuch as it pre-
pares us to loose ourselves also without repugnance. Doctor
Freeman's instances of female levity cured by grief, are certainly
to the point, and constitute an item of credit in the account we
examine. I was much mortified by the loss of the Doctor's visit,
by my absence from home. To have shown how much I feel
indebted to you for making good people known to me, would
have been one pleasure ; and to have enjoyed that of his conver-
sation, and the benefits of his information, so favorably reported
by my family, would have been another. I returned home on
the third day after his departure. The loss of such visits is among
the sacrifices which my divided residence costs me.
Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of
heroism to which I could not have aspired even in my younger
days. I have been contented with the humble achievement of
reading the analysis of his work by Destutt Tracy, in two hun-
dred pages octavo. I believe I should have ventured on his own
abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume, had it ever come
to my hands ; but the marrow of it in Tracy has satisfied my ap-
petite ; and even in that, the preliminary discourse of the analyzer
himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than the
body of the work. For the object of that seems to be to smother
all history under the mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as
those of Hercules and Jesus, can, by a fertile imagination and al-
legorical interpretations, be brought to the same tally, no line of
distinction remains between fact and fancy. As this pithy morsel
will not overburthen the mail in passing and repassing between
Quincy and Monticello, I send it for your perusal. Perhaps it
will satisfy you, as it has me ; and may save you the labor of
reading twenty-four times its volume. I have said to you that it
was written by Tracy ; and I had so entered it on the title page,
as I usually do on anonymous works whose authors are known to
me. But Tracy requested me not to betray his anonyme, for
reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have ceased to weigh. I am
bound, then, to make the same reserve with you. Destutt Tracy
is, in my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual sub-
OOREESPONDENOE. 39
jects, or the operations of the understanding. His three octavo
vohimes on Ideology, which constitute the foundation of what
he has since written, I have not entirely read ; because I am not
fond of reading what is merely abstract, and unapplied im-
mediately to some useful science. Bonaparte, with his repeated
derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author), has by this time
felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without prin-
ciple. The next work Tracy wrote was the Comnaentary on
Montesquieu, never published in the original, because not safe ;
but translated and published in Philadelphia, yet without the
author's name. He has since permitted his name to be men-
tioned. Although called a Commentary, it is, in truth, an ele-
mentary work on the principles of government, comprised in
about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a
third work, on Political Economy, comprising the whole subject
within about the same compass ; in which all its principles are
demonstrated with the severity of Euclid, and, like him, without
ever using a superfluous word. I have procured this to be trans-
lated, and have been four years endeavoring to get it printed ;
but as yet, without success. In the meantime, the author has
published the original in France, which he thought unsafe while
Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet
reached this country. He has his fourth and last work now in
the press at Paris, closing, as he conceives, the circle of meta-
physical sciences. This work, which is on Ethics, I have not
seen, but suspect I shall differ from it in its foundation, although
not in its deductions. I gather from his other works that he
adopts the principle of Hobbes, that justice is founded in contract
solely, and does not result from the construction of man. I be-
lieve, on the contrary, that it is instinct and innate, that the moral
sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, see-
ing, or hearing ; as a wise creator must have seen to be necessary
in an animal destined to live in society ; that every human mind
feels pleasure in doing good to another ; that the non-existence
of justice is not to be inferred from the fact that the same act is
deemed virtuous and right in one society which is held vicious
40 JEPFEKSON'S WOKKS.
and wrong in another ; because, as the circumstances and opin
ions of different societies vary, so the acts which may do their,
right or wrong must vary also ; for virtue does not consist in the
act we do, but in the end it is to effect. If it is to effect the hap-
piness of liim to whom it is directed, it is virtuous, while in a so-
ciety under different circumstances and opinions, the same act
might produce pain, and would be vicious. The essence of virtue
is in doing good to others, while what is good may be one thing
in one society, and its contrary in another. Yet, however we
may differ as to the foundation of morals, (and as many founda-
tions have been assumed as there are writers on the subject nearly,)
so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound system of mo-
rals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers, setting
out from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same
conclusions. This looks as if they were guided, unconsciously,
by the unerring hand of instinct.
Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or
other description is it to be inquired for ?
What do you think of the present situation of England ? Is
not this the great and fatal crush of their funding system, which
like death, has been foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of
death, hidden from mortal prescience ? It appears to me that all
the circumstances now exist which render recovery desperate.
The interest of the national debt is now equal to such a portion
of the profits of all the land and the labor of the island, as not
to leave enough for the subsistence of those who labor. Hence
the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other countries,
and the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him to
cover his back and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now
almost general, are of the hungry and the naked, who cannot be
quieted but by food and raiment. But where are the means of
feeding and clothing them ? The landholder has nothing of his
own to give ; he is but the fiduciary of those who have lent him
money ; the lender is so taxed in his meat, drink and clothing,
that he has but a bare subsistence left. The landholder, then,
must give up his land, or the lender his debt, or they must com-
CORRESPONDENOE. 41
promise by giving up each one-half. But will either consent,
■peaceably, to such an abandonment of property ? Or must it not
be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably compromised, will
they agree to risk another ruin under the same government un-
reformed ? I think not ; but I would rather know what you
think ; because you have lived with John Bull, and know better
than I do the character of his herd. 1 salute Mrs. Adams and
yourself with every sentiment of aff"ectionate cordiality and re-
spect.
TO THE SECRETAKT OF STATE.
/ MuNTiCELio, October 16, 1816.
Dear Sik, — If it be proposed to place an inscription on the
capitol, the lapidary style requires that essential facts only should
be stated, and these with a brevity admitting no superfluous word.
The essential facts in the two inscriptions proposed are these :
FOUNDED lYSl. BURNT BY A BRITISH ARMY 1814. — ^tlESTORED BY CONQKESS 1817.
The reasons for this brevity are that the letters must be of extra-
ordinary magnitude to be read from below ; that little space is
allowed them, being usually put into a pediment or in a frize, or
on a small tablet on the wall ; and in our case, a third reason
may be added, that no passion can be imputed to this inscription,
every word being justifiable from the most classical examples.
But a question of more importance is whether there should be
one at all ? The barbarism of the conflagration will immortalize
that of the nation. It will place them forever in degraded com-
parison with the execrated Bonaparte, who, in possession of
almost every capitol in Europe, injured no one. Of this, history
will take care, which all will read, while our inscription will be
seen by few. Great Britain, in her pride and ascendency, has
certainly hated and despised us beyond every earthly object.
Her hatred may remain, but the hour of her contempt is passed
and is succeeded by dread ; not a present, but a distant and deep
42 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
one. It is the greater as she feels herself plunged into an abyss
of ruin from which no human means point out an issue. We
also have more reason to hate her than any nation on earth. Bui
she is not now an object for hatred. She is falling from her
transcendant sphere, which all men ought to have -rt^ished, but not
that she should lose all place among nations. It is for the interest
of all that she should be maintained, nearly on a par with other
members of the republic of nations. Her power, absorbed into
that of any other, would be an object of dread to all, and to us
more than all, because we are accessible to her alone and through
.her alone. The armies of Bonaparte with the fleets of Britain,
would change the aspect of our destinies. Under these prospects
should we perpetuate hatred against her ? Should we not, on
the contrary, begin to open ourselves to other and more rational
dispositions ? It is not improbable that the circumstances of the
war and her own circumstances may have brought her wise men
to begin to view us with other and even with kindred eyes.
Should not our wise men, then, lifted above the passions of the
ordinary citizen, begin to contemplate what will he the interests of
our country on so important a change among the elements which
influence it ? I think it would be better to give her time to show
her present temper, and to prepare the minds of our citizens for
a corresponding change of disposition, by acts of comity towards
England rather than by commemoration of hatred. These
views might be greatly extended. Perhaps, however, they are
premature, and that I may see the ruin of England nearer than
it really is. This will be matter of consideration with those to
whose councils we have commited ourselves, and whose wisdom
J am sure, will conclude on what is best. Perhaps they may let
It go off on the single and short consideration that the thing can
do no good, and may do harm. Ever and affectionately yours.
OOERESPONDENOE. 43
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Poplar Foekst, November 25, 1816.
I receive here, dear Sir, your favor of the 4th, just as I am
preparing my return to Monticello for winter quarters, and I hasten
to answer to some of your inquiries. The Tracy I mentioned
to you is the one connected by marriage with Lafayette's family.
The mail which brought your letter, brought one also from him.
He writes me that he is become blind, and so infirm that he is
no longer able to compose anything. So that we are to consider
his works as now closed. They are three volumes of Ideology,
one on Political Economy, one on Ethics, and one containing
his Commentary on Montesquieu, and a little tract on Education.
Although his commentary explains his principles of government,
he had intended to have substituted for it an elementary and reg-
ular treatise on the subject, but he is prevented by his infirmities.
His Analyse de Dupuys he does not avow.
My books are all arrived, some at New York, some at Boston,
and I am glad to hear that those for Harvard are safe also, and
the Uranologia you mention without telling me what it is. It is
something good, I am sure, from the name connected with it ;
and if you would add to it your fable of the bees, we should re-
ceive valuable instruction as to the Uranologia both of the father
and son, more valuable than the Chinese will from our bible so-
cieties. These incendiaries, finding that the days of fire and
fagot are over in the Atlantic hemisphere, are now preparing to
put the torch to the Asiatic regions. What would they say were
the Pope to send annually to this country, colonies of Jesuit
priests with cargoes of their missal and translations of their Vul-
gate, to be put gratis into the hands of every one who would ac-
cept them ? and to act thus nationally on us as a nation ?
I proceed to the letter you were so good as to enclose me. It
is an able letter, speaks volumes in few words, presents a pro-
found view of awful truths, and lets us see truths more awful,
which are still to follow. George the Third then, and his
minister Pitt, and successors, have spent the fee simple of the
44 JEFFERSON'S "WOEKS.
kingdom, under pretence of governing it ; their ' sinecures, sala-
ries, pensions, priests, prelates, princes and eternal wars, have
mortgaged to its full value the last foot of their soil. They are
reduced to the dilemma of a bankrupt spendthrift, who, having
run through his whole fortune, now asks himself what he is to
do ? It is in vain he dismisses his coaches and horses, his
grooms, liveries, cooks and butlers. This done, he still finds he
has nothing to eat. What was his property is now that of his
creditors ; if still in his hands, it is only as their trustee. To
them it belongs, and to them every farthing of its profits must go.
The reformation of extravagances comes too late. All is gone.
Nothing left for retrenchment or frugality to go on. The debts
of England, however, being due from the whole nation to one
half of it, being as much the debt of the creditor as debtor, if it
could be referred to a court of equity, principles might be devised
to adjust it peaceably. Dismiss their parasites, ship off their pau-
pers to this country, let the landholders give half their lands to
the money lenders, and these last relinquish one half of their
debts. They would still have a fertile island, a sound and. ef-
fective population to labor it, and would hold that station among
political powers, to which their natural resources and faculties
entitle them. They would no longer, indeed, be the lords of the
ocean and paymasters of all the princes of the earth. They
would no longer enjoy the luxuries of pirating and plundering
everything by sea, and of bribing and corrupting everything by
land ; but they might enjoy the more safe and lasting luxury of
living on terms of equality, justice and good neighborhood with
all nations. As it is, their first efforts will probably be to quiet
things a'while by the palliatives of reformation ; to nibble a little
at pensions and sinecures, to bite off a bit here, and a bite there
to amuse the people ; and to keep the government a going by
encroachments on the interest of the public debt, one per cent,
of which, for instance, withheld, gives them a spare revenue of ten
millions for present subsistence, and spunges, in fact, two hundred
millions of the debt. This remedy they may endeavor to ad-
minister in broken doses of a small pill at a time. The first
OORRESPONDENOE. 45
may not occasion more than a strong nausea in the money lend-
ers ; but the second will probably produce a revulsion of the
stomach, borborisms, and spasmodic calls for fair settlement and
compromise. But it is not in the character of man to come
to any peaceable compromise of such a state of things. The
princes and priests will hold to the flesh-pots, the empty bellies will
seize on them, and these being the multitude, the issue is ob-
vious, civil war, massacre, exile as in Prance, until the stage is
cleaned of everything but the multitude, and the lands get
into their hands by such processes as the revolution will en-
gender. They will then want peace and a government, and
what will it be ? certainly not a renewal of that which has al-
ready ruined them. Their habits of law and order, their ideas
almost innate of the vital elements of free government, of trial
by jury, habeas corpus, freedom of the press, freedom of opin-
ion, and representative government, make them, I think, capa-
ble of bearing a considerable portion of liberty. They will
probably turn their eyes to us, and be disposed to tread in our
footsteps, seeing how safely these have led us into port. There
is no part of our model to which they seem unequal, unless per-
haps the elective presidency ; and even that might possibly be
rescued from the tumult of elections, by subdividing the electoral
assemblages into very small parts, such as of wards or town-
ships, and making them simultaneous. But you know them so
much better than I do, that it is presumption to offer my conjec-
tures to you.
While it is much our interest to see this power reduced from
its towering and borrowed height, to within the limits of its
natural resources, it is by no means our interest that she should
be brought below that, or lose her competent place among the
nations of Europe. The present exhausted state of the conti-
nent will, I hope, permit them to go through their struggle with-
out foreign interference, and to settle their new government ac-
cording to their own will. I think it will be friendly to us, as
the nation itself would be were it not artfully wrought up by
the hatred their government bears us. And were they once un-
46 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
der a government which should treat us with justice and equity.
I should myself feel with great strength the ties which bind us
together, of origin, language, laws and manners ; and I am per-
suaded the two people would become in future, as it was with
the ancient Greeks, among whom it was reproachful for Greek
to be found fighting against Greek in a foreign army. The in
dividvals of the nation I have ever honored and esteemed, the
basis of their character being essentially worthy ; but I consider
their government as the most flagitious which has existed since
the days of Philip of Macedon, whom they make their model.
It is not only founded in corruption itself, but insinuates the
same poison into the bowels of every other, corrupts its councils,
nourishes factions, stirs up revolutions, and places its own happi-
ness in fomenting commotions and civil wars among others, thus
rendering itself truly the hostis humani generis. The effect is
now coming home to itself. Its first operation will fall on the
individuals who have been the chief instruments in its corrup-
tions, and will eradicate the families which have from generation
to generation been fattening on the blood of their brethren ; and
this scoria once thrown off, I am in hopes a purer nation will re-
sult, and a purer government be instituted, one which, instead of
endeavoring to make us their natural enemies, will see in us,
what we really are, their natural friends and brethren, and more
interested in a fraternal connection with them than with any oth-
er nation on earth. I look, therefore, to their revolution with
great interest. I wish it to be as moderate and bloodless as will
effect the desired object of an honest government, one which
will permit the world to live in peace, and under the bonds of
friendship and good neighborhood.
In this tremendous tempest, the distinctions of whig and tory
will disappear like chaff on a troubled ocean. Indeed, they have
been disappearing from the day Hume first began to publish his
history. This single book has done more to sap the free princi-
ples of the English constitution than the largest standing army
of which their patriots have been so jealous. It is like the por-
traits of our countryman Wright, whose eye was so unhappy as
COEEESPONDENOE. 47
to seize all the ugly features of his subject, and to present them
faithfully, while it "was entirely insensible to every lineament of
beauty. So Hume has concentrated, in his fascinating style, all
the arbitrary proceedings of the English kings, as true evidences
of the constitution, and glided over its whig principles as the
unfounded pretensions of factious demagogues. He even boasts,
in his life written by himself, that of the numerous alterations
suggested by the readers of his work, he had never adopted one
proposed by a whig.
But what, in this same tempest, will become of their colonies
and their fleets ? Will the former assume independence, and the
latter resort to piracy for subsistence, taking possession of some
island as a point d'appui ? A pursuit of these would add too
much to the speculations on the situation and prospects of Eng-
land, into which I have been led by the pithy text of the letter
you so kindly sent me, and which I now return. It is worthy
the pen of Tacitus. I add, therefore, only my afiectionate and
respectful souvenirs to Mrs. Adams and yourself.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
Quixoy, December 16, 1816.
Your letter, dear Sir, of November 25th, from Poplar Forest,
was sent to me from the post-ofiice the next day after I had sent
" The Analysis," with my thanks to you.
" Three vols, of Idiology !" Pray explain to me this Neologi-
cal title ! "What does it mean ? When Bonaparte used it, I was
delighted with it, upon the common principle of delight in every-
thing we cannot understand. Does it mean Idiotism ? The
science of non compos mentuism ? The science of Lunacy ? The
theory of delirium ? or does it mean the science of self-love ? Of
amour propre ? or the elements of vanity ?
Were I in France at this time, I could profess blindness and
infirmity, and prove it too. I suppose he does not avow the an-
alysis, as Hume did not avow his essay on human nature. That
48 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
analysis, however, does not show a man of excessive mediocrity.
Had I known any of these things two years ago, I would have
written him a letter. Of all things, I wish to see his Idiology
upon Montesquieu. If you, with all your iniluence, have not
been able to get your own translation of it, with your own notes
upon it, jTublished in four years, where and what is the freedom
of the American press? Mr. Taylor of Hazelwood, Port Royal,
can have his voluminous and luminous works published with
ease and despatch.
The Uranologia, as I am told, is a collection of plates, stamps,
charts of the Heavens upon a large scale, representing all the
constellations. The work of some Professor in Sweden. It is
said to be the most perfect that ever has appeared. I have not
seen it. Why should I ride fifteen miles to see it, when I can
see the original every clear evening ; and especially as Dupuis
has almost made me afraid to inquire after anything more of it
than I can see with my naked eye in a star-light night ?
That the Pope will send Jesuits to this country, I doubt not ;
and the church of England, missionaries too. And the Metho-
dists, and the Quakers, and the Moravians, and the Swedenburg-
ers, and the Menonists, and the Scottish Kirkers, and the Jacobites,
and the Jacobins, and the Democrats, and the Aristocrats, and the
Monarchists, and the Despotists of all denominations : and every
emissary of every one of these sects will find a part} here already
formed, to give him a cordial reception. No power or intelligence
less than Raphael's moderator, can reduce this chaos to order.
I am charmed with the fluency and rapidity of your reasoning
on the state of Great Britain. I can deny none of your premises ;
but I doubt your conclusion. After all the convvJsions that you
foresee, they will return to that constitution which you say has
ruined them, and I say has been the source of all their power and
importance. They have, as you say, too much sense and knowl-
edge of liberty, ever to submit to simple monarchy, or absolute
despotism, on the one hand ; and too much of the devil in them
ever to be governed by popular elections of Presidents, Senators,
and Representatives in Congress. Instead of " turning their eyes
CORRESPONDENCE. 49
to ns," their innate feelings will turn them from us. They have
been taught from their cradles to despise, scorn, insult, and abuse
us. They hate us more vigor(5usly than they do the French.
They would sooner adopt the simple monarchy of France, than
our republican institutions. You compliment me with more
knowledge of them than I can assume or pretend. If I should
write you a volume of observations I made in England, you
would pronounce it a satire. Suppose the " Refrain," as, the
French call it, or the Burthen of the Song, as the English express
it, should be, the Religion, the Government, the Commerce, the
Manufactures, the Army and Navy of Great Britain, are all re-
duced to the science of pounds, shillings and pence. Elections
appeared to me a mere commercial traffic ; mere bargain and sale.
I have been told by sober, steady freeholders, that " they never
had been, and never would go to the poll, without being paid
for their time, travel and expenses." • Now, suppose an election
for a President of the British empire. There must be a nomina-
tion of candidates by a national convention, Congress, or caucus
— ^in which would be two parties — Whigs and Tories. Of course
two candidates at least would be nominated. The empire is in-
stantly divided into two parties at least. Every man must be
paid for his vote by the candidate of his party. The only ques-
tion would be, which party has the deepest purse. The same
reasoning will apply to elections of Senators and Representatives
too. A revolution might destroy the Burroughs and the Inequali-
ties of representation, and might produce more toleration; and
these acquisitions might be worth all they would cost ; but I dread
the experiment.
Britain will never be our friend till we are her master.
This will happen in less time than you and I have been strug-
gling with her power ; provided we remain united. Aye ! there's
the rub ! I fear there will be greater difficulties to preserve our
Union, than you and I, our fathers, brothers, friends, disciples
and sons have had, to form it. Towards Great Britain, I would
adopt their own maxim. An EngHsh jockey says, " If I have a
wild horse to break, I begin by convincing him I am his master ;
VOL. VII. 4
50 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
and then I will convince him that I am his friend." I am weL
assured that nothing will restrain Great Britam from injuring us,
but fear.
You think that " in a revolution the distinction of Whig and
Tory would disappear." I cannot believe this. That distinc-
tion arises from nature and society ; is now, and ever will be,
time without end, among Negroes, Indians, and Tartars, as well
as federalists and republicans. Instead of "disappearing since
Hume published his history," that history has only increased the
Tories and diminished the Whigs. That history has been the
bane of Great Britain. It has destroyed many of the best effects
of the revolution of 1688. Style has governed the empire.
Swift, Pope and Hume, have disgraced all the honest historians.
Rapin and Burnet, Oldmixen and Coke, contain more honest
truth than Hume and Clarendon, and all their disciples and imi-
tators. But who reads any of them at this day ? Every one of
the fine arts from the earliest times has been enlisted in the ser-
vice of superstition and despotism. The whole world at this day
gazes with astonishment at the grossest fictions, because they
have been immortalized by the most exquisite artists — Homer
and Milton, Phideas and Raphael. The rabble of the classic
skies, and the hosts of Roman Catholic saints and angels, are
still adored in paint, and marble, and verse. Raphael has sketched
the actors and scenes in all Apuleus's Amours of Psyche and
Cupid. Nothing is too offensive to morals, delicacy, or decency,
for this painter. Raphael has painted in one of the most osten-
tatious churches in Italy — the Creation — and with what genius ?
God Almighty is represented as leaping into chaos, and boxing
it about with his fists, and kicking it about with his feet, till he
tumbles it into order !
Nothing is too impious or profane for this great master, who
has painted so many inimitable virgins and children.
To help me on in my career of improvement, I have now read
four volumes of La Harpe's correspondence with Paul and a Rus-
sian minister. Philosophers! Never again think of annuling
superstition per Saltum, Testine cente.
OOEEESPONDENOE. 51
TO ME. MELLISH.
MoNTioELLo, Peoembei' 31, 181fi.
Sir, — Your favor of November 23d, after a very long passage,
is received, and with it the map which you have been so kind
as to send me, for which I return you many thanks. It is hand-
somely executed, and on a well-chosen scale ; giving a luminous
view of the comparative possessions of different powers in our
America. It is on account of the value I set on it, that I will
make some suggestions. By the charter of Louis XIV. all the
country comprehending the waters which flow into the Missis-
sippi, was made a part of Louisiana. Consequently its northern
boundary was the summit of the highlands in which its north-
ern waters rise. But by the Xth Art. of the Treaty of Utrecht,
France and England agreed to appoint commissioners to settle the
boundary between their possessions in that quarter, and those
commissioners settled it at the 49th degree of latitude. See
Hutchinson's Topographical Description of Louisiana, p. 7. This
it was which induced the British Commissioners, in settling the
boundary with us, to follow the northern water line to the Lake
of the Woods, at the latitude of 49°, and then go off on that
parallel. This, then, is the true northern boundary of Louisiana.
The western boundary of Louisiana is, rightfully, the Rio
Bravo, (its main stream,) from its mouth to its scarce, and thence
along the highlands and mountains dividing the waters of the
Mississippi from those of the Pacific. The usurpations of Spain
on the east side of that river, have induced geographers to sup-
pose the Puerco or Salado to be the boundary. The line along
the highlands stands on the charter of Louis XIV. that of the
Rio Bravo, on the circumstance that, when La Salle took pos-
session of the Bay of St. Bernard, Panuco was the nearest pos-
session of Spain, and the Rio Bravo the natural half-way boun-
dary between them.
On the waters of the Pacific, we can found no claim in right
of Louisiana. If we claim that country at all, it must be on
Astor's settlement near the mouth of the Columbia, and the prin-
52 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
ciple of the jus gentium of America, that when a civilized na-
tion takes possession of the mouth of a river in a new country,
that possession is considered as inckiding all its waters.
The line of latitude of the southern source of the multnomat
might be claimed as appurtenant to Astoria. For its northern
boundary, I believe an understanding has been come to between
our government and Russia, which might be known from some
of its members. I do not know it.
Although the irksomeness of writing, which you may perceive
from the present letter, and its labor, oblige me now to withdraw
from letter writing, yet the wish that your map should set to
rights the ideas of our own countrymen, as well as foreign n^i-
tions, as to our correct boundaries, has induced me to make these
suggestions, that you may bestow on them whatever inquiry
they may merit. I salute you with esteem and respect.
TO MRS. ADAMS.
MoNTioELLO, January 11, 1817.
I owe you, dear Madam, a thousand thanks for the letters com-
municated in your favor of December 15th, and now returned.
They give me more information than I possessed before, of the
family of Mr. Tracy. But what is infinitely interesting, is the
scene of the exchange of Louis XVIII. for Bonaparte. What
lessons of wisdom Mr. Adams must have read in that short space
of time ! More than fall to the lot of others in the course of a
long life. Man, and the man of Paris, under those circumstances,
must have been a subject of profound speculation ! It would
be a singular addition to that spectacle, to see the same beast in
the cage of St. Helena, like a lion in the tower. That is prob-
ably the closing verse of the chapter of his crimes. But not so
with Louis. He has other vicissitudes to go through.
I communicated the letters, according to your permission, to
my grand-daughter, Ellen Randolph, who read them with pleas-
ure and edification. She is justly sensible of, and flattered by
CORRESPONDENCE. 53
your kind notice of her ; and additionally so, by the favorable
recollections of our northern yisiting friends. If Monticello has
anything which has merited their remembrance, it gives it a
value the more in our estimation ; and could I, in the spirit of
your wish, count backwards a score of years, it would not be
long before Ellen and myself would pay our homage personally
to Q,uincy. But those twenty years ! Alas ! where are they ?
With those beyond the flood. Our next meeting must then be
in the country to which they have flown, — a country for us not
now very distant. For this journey we shall need neither gold nor
silver in our purse, nor scrip, nor coats, nor staves. Nor is the
provision for it more easy than the preparation has been kind.
Nothing proves more than this, that the Being who presides over
the world is essentially benevolent. Stealing from us, one by
one, the faculties of enjoyment, searing our sensibilities, leading
us, like the horse in his mill, round and round the same beaten
circle,
To see what we have seen,
To taste the tasted, and at each return
Less tasteful ; o'er our palates to decant
Another vintage —
Untn satiated and fatigued with this leaden iteration, we ask our
own conge. I heard once a very old friend, who had troubled
himself with neither poets nor philosophers, say the same thing
in plain prose, that he was tired of pulling off his shoes and
stockings at night, and putting them on again in the morning.
The wish to stay here is thus gradually extinguished ; but not
so easily that of returning once, in awhile, to see how things
have gone on. Perhaps, however, one of the elements of future
felicity is to be a constant and unimpassioned view of what is
passing here. If so, this may well supply the wish of occasional
visits. Mercier has given us a vision of the year 2440 ; but
prophecy is one thing, and history another. On the whole, how-
ever, perhaps it is wise and well to be contented with the good
things which the master of the feast places before us, and to be
thankful for what we have, rather than thoughtful about what
54 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
we have not. You and I, dear Madam, have aheady had more
than an ordinary portion of life, and more, too, of health than the
general measure. On this score I owe boundless thankfulness.
Your health was, some time ago, not so good as it has been ; and
I perceive in the letters communicated, some complaints still. I
hops it is restored ; and that life and health may be continued to
you as many years as yourself shall wish, is the sincere prayer
of your affectionate and respectful friend.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLO, January 11, ISlT.
Deab Sik, — Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve
of them quarto ! Dear Sir, how I envy you ! Half a dozen
octavos in that space of time, are as much as I am allowed. I
can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my
rest ; nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by that
light see to write. Prom sunrise to one or two o'clock, and
often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing table.
And all this to answer letters into which neither interest nor in-
clination on my part enters ; and often from persons whose names
I have never before heard. Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to re-
fuse them civil answers. This is the burthen of my life, a very
grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of. Dela-
plaine lately requested me to give him a line on the subject of
his book ; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I con-
stantly refuse ; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a word
for him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely my
suflFerings from this source ; hoping it would have the effect of
an indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others,
who, in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their
concerns, their pursuits, their projects, inventions and specula-
tions, political, moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, his-
torical, &c., &c., &c. I hope the appeal will bring me relief,
and that I shall be left to exercise and enjoy correspondence with
CORRESPONDENCE. 55
the friends I love, and on subjects which they, or my own in-
clinations present. In that case, your letters shall not be so long
on my files unanswered, as sometimes they have been, to my
great mortification.
To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th
and 16th. Tracy's Commentaries on Montesquieu have never
been published in the original. Duane printed a translation from
th« original manuscript a few years ago. It sold, I believe,
readily, and whether a copy can now be had, I doubt. If it can,
you will receive it from my bookseller in Philadelphia, to whom
I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends, under the
word " Ideology," all the subjects which the French term Morale,
as the correlative to Physique. His works on Logic, Govern-
ment, Political Economy and Morality, he considers as making
up the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within
the scope of the understanding, and not of the senses. His
Logic occupies exactly the ground of Locke's work on the Un-
derstanding. The translation of that on Political Economy is
now printing ; but it is no translation of mine. I have only had
the correction of it, which was, indeed, very laborious. Le pre-
mier jet having been by some one who understood neither
French or English, it was impossible to make it more than faith-
ful. But it is a valuable work.
The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading, in
the four words, " Be just and good," is that in which all our in-
quiries must end ; as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four
more, "ttfii panis, ibi deus." What all agree in, is probably
right. What no two agree in, most probably wrong. One of
our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small men as very great,
inquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether he might
consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken
of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what
had been my religion before, taking for it the word of their
priests, whom I certainly never made the confidants of my creed.
My answer was, " say nothing of my religion. It is known to
my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to
56 JEFFEESOIT'S WORKS.
be sought in my life ; if that has been honest and dutiful to so-
ciety, the rehgion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."
Affectionately adien.
TO WILLIAM LEE, ESQ.
MoNTiOELLo, January 16. 1817.
Deak Sir, — I received, three days ago, a letter from M. Martin,
2d Vice President, and M. Parmantier, Secretary of " the French
Agricultural and Manufacturing Society," dated at Philadelphia the
5th instant. It covered resolutions proposing to apply to Con-
gress for a grant of two hundred and fifty thousand acres of
land on the Tombigbee, and stating some of the general princi-
ples on which the society was to be founded ; and their letter
requested me to tr^ce for them the basis of a social pact for the
local regulations of their society, and to address the answer to
yourself, their 1st Vice President at Washington. No one can
be more sensible than I am of the honor of their confidence in
me, so flatteringly manifested in this resolution ; and certainly
no one can feel stronger dispositions than myself to be useful to
them, as well in return for this great mark of their respect, as
from feelings for the situation of strangers, forced by the misfor-
tunes of their native country to seek another by adoption, so
distant and so different from that in all its circumstances. I
commiserate the hardships they have to encounter, and equally
applaud the resolution with which they meet them, as well as
the principles proposed for their government. That their emi-
gration may be for the happiness of their descendants, I can be-
lieve ; but from the knowledge I have of the country they have
left, and its state of social intercourse and comfort, their own
personal happiness will undergo severe trial here. The laws,
however, which must effect this must flow from their own habits,
their own feelings, and the resources of their own minds. No
stranger to these could possibly propose regulations adapted to
them. Every people have their own particular habits, ways of
ihinking, manners, &c., which have grown up with them from
CORRESPONDENCE. 57
their infancy are become a part ot their nature, and to which the
regulations which are to make them happy must be accommodated.
No member of a foreign country can have a sufficient sympathy
with these. The institutions of Lycui-gus, for example, would
not have suited Athens, nor those of Solon, Lacedsemon. The
organizations of Locke were impracticable for Carolina, and those
of Rousseau and Mably for Poland. Turning inwardly on my-
self from these eminent illustrations of the truth of my observa-
tion, I feel all the presumption it would manifest, should I under-
take to do what this respectable society is alone qualified to do
suitably for itself. There are some preliminary questions, too,
which are particularly for their own consideration. Is it pro-
posed that this shall be a separate State ? or a county of a State ?
or a mere voluntary association, as those of the Q,uakers, Dun-
kars, Menonists ? A separate State it cannot be, because from
the tract it asks it would not be more than twenty miles square ;
and in establishing new States, regard is had to a certain degree
of equality in size. If it is to be a county of a State, it cannot
be governed by its own laws, but must be subject to those of the
State of which it is a part. If merely a voluntary association,
the submission of its members will be merely voluntary also ; as
no act of coercion would be permitted by the general law.
These considerations must control the society, and themselves
alone can modify their own intentions and wishes to them. With
this apology for declining a task to which I am so unequal, I
pray them to be assured of my sincere wishes for their success
and happiness, and yourself particularly of my high considera-
tion and esteem.
TO DOCTOE THOMAS HUMPHREYS.
MoNTiCELLO, February 8, ISlT.
3eae Sik, — Your favor of January 2d did not come to my
hands until the 5th instant. I concur entirely in your leading
principles of gradual emancipation, of establishment on the coast
58 JEFFERSON'S VOEKS.
of Africa, and the patronage of our nation until the emigrants
shall be able to protect themselves. The subordinate details
might be easily arranged. But the bare proposition of purchase
by the United States generally, would excite infinite indignation
in all the States north of Maryland. The sacrifice must fall on
the States alone which hold them ; and the difficult question will
be how to lessen this so as to reconcile our fellow citizens to it.
Personally I am ready and desirous to niake any sacrifice which
shall ensure their gradual but complete retirement from the State,
and efiectually, at the same time, establish them elsewhere in free-
dom and safety. But I have not perceived the growth of this
disposition in the rising generation, of which I once had san-
guine hopes. No symptoms inform me that it will take place in
my day. I leave it, therefore, to time, and not at all without
hope that the day will come, equally desirable and welcome to
us as to them. Perhaps the proposition now on the carpet at
Washington to provide an establishment on the coast of Africa
for voluntary emigrations of people of color, may be the corner
stone of this future edifice. Praying for its completion as early
as may most promote the good of all, I salute you with great
esteem and respect.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEKSON.
QuiNOY, April 19, 1811.
Dear Sir, — My loving and beloved friend Pickering, has been
pleased to inform the world that I have " few friends." I want-
ed to whip the rogue, and I had it in my power, if it had been
in my will to do it, till the blood came. But all my real friends,
as I thought then, with Dexter and Gray at their head, insisted
" that I should not say a word ; that nothing that such a person
could write would do me the least injury ; that it would betray
the constitution and the government, if a President, out or in,
should enter into a newspaper' controversy with one of his min-
isters, whom he had removed from his office, in. justification of
OORRESPONDENOE. 59
himself for that removal, or anything else ;" and they talked a
great deal about the Dignity of the office of President, which I
do not find that any other person, public or private regards very
much.
Nevertheless, I fear that Mr. Pickering's information is too true.
It is impossible that any man should run such a gauntlet as I
have been driven through, and have many friends at last. This
" all who know me know," though I cannot say ; who love me,
tell.
I have, however, either friends who wish to amuse and solace
my old age, or enemies who mean to heap coals of fire on my
head, and kill me with kindness ; for they overwhelm me with
books from all quarters, enough to obfuscate all eyes, and smoth-
er and stifle all human understanding. Chateaubriand, Grinim,
Tucker, Dupuis, La Harpe, Sismondi, Eustace, a new transla-
tion of Herodotus, by Bedloe, with more notes than text. What
should I do with all this lumber ? I make my " woman-kind,"
as the antiquary expresses it, read to me all the English, but as
they will not read the French, I am obliged to excruciate my
eyes to read it myself ; and all to what purpose ? I verily be-
lieve I was as wise and good, seventy years ago, as I am now.
At that period Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest, and Joseph
Cleverly my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a jolly, jocular,
and liberal scholar and divine. Joseph a scholar and a gentle-
man ; but a bigoted Episcopalian, of the school of Bishop
Saunders, and Dr. Hicks, — a downright conscientious, passive
obedience man, in Church and State. The parson and the peda-
gogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about
government and religion. One day, when the schoolmaster had
been more than commonly fanatical, and declared " if he were
a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions ;"
the parson coolly replied, " Cleverly ! you would be the best man
in the world if you had no reUgion."
Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been
on the point of breaking out, " This would be the best of all
possible worlds, if there were no rehgion in it ! ! !" But in this
60 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
exclamation I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Clever-
ly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to
be mentioned in polite society, I mean hell. So far from be-
lieving in the total and universal depravity of human nature, I
believe there is no' individual totally depraved. The most aban-
doned scoundrel that ever existed, never yet wholly extinguished
his conscience, and while conscience remains there is some re-
ligion. Popes, Jesuits, and Sorbonists, and Inquisitors, have some
conscience and some religion. So had Marius and Sylla, Caesar,
Catiline and Antony; and Augustus had not much more, let
Virgil and Horace say what they will.
What shall we think of Virgil and Horace, Sallust, duintil-
ian, Pliny, and even Tacitus ? and even Cicero, Brutus and Sene-
ca ? Pompey I leave out of the question, as a mere politician and
soldier. Every one of the great creatures has left indelible
marks of conscience, and consequently of religion, though every
one of them has left abundant proofs of profligate violations of
their consciences by their little and great passions and paltry in-
terests.
The vast prospect of mankind, which these books have passed
in review before me, from the most ancient records, histories, tra-
ditions and fables, that' remain to us to the present day, has sick-
ened my very soul, and almost reconciled me to Swift's travels
among the Yahoos ; yet I never can be a misanthrope — Homo
sum. I must hate myself before I . can hate my fellow men ;
and that I cannot, and will not do. No ! I will not hate any of
them, base, brutal, and devilish as some of them have been to me.
From the bottom of my soul, I pity my fellow men. Fears
and terrors appear to have produced an universal credulity. Fears
of calamities in life, and punishments after death, seem to have
possessed the souls of all men. But fear of pain and death,
here, do not seem to have been so unconquerable, as fear of what
is to come hereafter. Priests, Hierophants, Popes, Despots, Em-
perors, Kings, Princes, Nobles, have been as credulous as shoe-
blacks, boots and kitchen scullions. The former seem to have
believed in their divine rights as sincerely as the latter.
OOERESPONDENOE. 61
Auto de fees, in Spain and Portugal, have been celebrated with
as good faith as excommunications have been practised in Con-
necticut, or as baptisms have been refused in Philadelphia.
How is it possible that mankind should submit to be governed,
as they have been, is to me an inscrutable mystery. How they
could bear to be taxed to build the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
the pyramids of Egypt, Saint Peter's at Rome, Notre Dame at
Paris, St. Paul's in London, with a million et ceteras, when my
navy yards and my quasi army made such a popMar clamor, I
know not. Yet all my peccadillos never excited such a rage as
the late compensation law !
I congratulate you on the late election in Connecticut. It is
a kind of epocha. Several causes have conspired. One which
you would not suspect. Some one, no doubt instigated by the
devil, has taken it into his head to print a new edition of the
" Independent Whig," even in Connecticut, and has scattered the
volumes through the State. These volumes, it is said, have pro-
duced a burst of indignation against priestcraft, bigotry and in-
tolerance, and in conjunction with other causes, have produced
the late election.
When writing to you I never know when to subscribe,
J. A.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLo, May 5, 1817.
Dear Sik, — Absences and avocations had prevented my ac-
knowledging your favor of February the 2d, when that of April
the 19th arrived. I had not the pleasure of receiving the former
by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business probably carried him
in another direction ; for I am far inland, and distant from the
great line of communication between the trading cities. Your
recommendations are always welcome, for indeed, the subjects
of them always merit that welcome, and some of them in an ex-
traordinary degree. They make us acquainted with what there
is excellent in our ancient sister State of Massachusetts, once
62 JEFFERSON'S "WOEKS.
venerated and beloved, and still hanging on our hopes, for what
need we despair of after the resurrection of Connecticut to light
and liberality. I had believed that the last retreat of monkish
darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind
which had carried the other States a century ahead of them.
They seemed still to be exactly where their forefathers were
when they schismatized from the covenant of works, and to con-
sider as dangerous heresies all innovations good or bad. I join
you, therefore, in sincere congratulations that this den of the
priesthood is at length broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom
is no longer to disgrace the American history and character. If
by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no
two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is
just, " that this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there
were no religion in it." But if the moral precepts, innate in man,
and made a part of his physical constitution, as necessary for a
social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism
taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute
true religion, then, without it, this would be, as you again say,
" something not fit to be named, even indeed, a hell."
You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the
malice of Pickering could say of you. ^Were such things to be
answered, our lives would be wasted in the filth of fendings and
provings, instead of being employed in promoting the happiness
and prosperity of our fellow citizens. The tenor of your life is
the proper and sufiicient answer. It is fortunate for those in
public trust, that posterity will judge them by their works, and
not by the malignant vituperations and invectives of the Picker-
ings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men of energy of
character must have enemies ; because there are two sides to
every question, .ind taking one with decision, and acting on it
with effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in
proportion as they feel that eff'ect. Thus, in the revolution, Han-
cock and the Adamses were the raw-head and bloody bones of
tories and traitors who yet knew nothing of you personally but
what was good. I do not entertain your apprehensions for the
COEEESPONDENCE. 63
happiness of our brother Madison in a state of retirement. Such
a mind as his, fraught with information and with matter for re-
flection, can never know ennui. Besides, there will always be
work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness to
his country. For example, he and Monroe (the President) are
now here on the work of a collegiate institution to be established
in our neighborhood, of which they and myself are three of six
visitors. This, if it succeeds, will raise up children for Mr. Mad-
ison to employ his attention through life. I say if it succeeds ;
for we have two very essential wants in our way, first, means to
compass our views ; and, second, men qualified to fulfil them.
And these, you will agree, are essential wants indeed.
I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his
is a field familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His
work is highly praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been
occupied and delighted with reading another work, the title of
which did not promise much useful information or amusement,
" V Italia avanti il dominio dei Romani dal Micali." It has
often, you know, been a subject of regret, that Carthage had no
writer to give her side of her own history, while her wealth,
power and splendor, prove she must have had a very distinguish-
ed policy and government. Micali has given the counterpart of
the Roman history, for the nations over which they extended
their dominion. For this he has gleaned up matter from every
quarter, and furnished materials for reflection and digestion to
those who, thinking as they read, have perceived that there was
a great deal of matter behind the curtain, could that be fully
withdrawn. He certainly gives new views of a nation whose
splendor has masked and palliated their barbarous ambition. 1
am now reading Botta's history of our own Revolution. Bating
the ancient practice which he has adopted, of putting speeches
into mouths which never made them, and fancying motives of
action which we never felt, he has given that history with more
detail, precision and candor, than any writer I have yet met with.
It is, to be sure, compiled from those writers ; but it is a good se-
64 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
cretion of their matter, the pure from the impure, and presented
in a just sense of right, in opposition to usurpation.
Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affec-
tionate esteem and respect.
TO DB. JOSEPHUS B. STUAET.
MoNTioELLo, May 10, 1S17.
Deab Sib, — ^Your favor of April 2d is duly received. I am
very sensible of the partiality with which you are so good as to
review the course I have held in public life, and I have also to
be thankful to mjr fellow-citizens for a like indulgence generally
shown to my endeavors to be useful to them. They give quite
as much credit as is merited to the difficulties supposed to attend
the public administration. There are no mysteries in it. Diffi-
culties indeed sometimes arise ; but common sense and honest in-
tentions will generally steer through them, and, where they cannot
be surmounted, I have ever seen the well-intentioned part of our
fellow citizens sufficiently disposed not to look for impossibilities.
We all know that a farm, however large, is not more difficult to
direct than a garden, and does not call for more attention or skill.
I hope with you that the policy of our country will settle down
"with as much navigation and commerce only as our own ex-
changes .will require, and that the disadvantage will be seen of
our undertaking to carry on that of other nations. This, indeed,
may bring gain to a few individuals, and enable them to call off
from our farms more laborers to be converted into lackeys anr'
grooms for them, but it will bring nothing to our country bu
wars, debt, and dilapidation. This has been the course of Eng-
land, and her examples have fearful influence on us. In copy
ing her we do not seem to consider that like premises induce like
consequences. The bank mania is one of the most threatening
of these imitations. It is raising up a monied aristocracy in jur
country which has already set the government at defiance, and
although forced at length to yield a little on this first essay of
CORRESPONDENCE. 65
their strength, their principles are nnyielded and unyielding.
These have taken deep root in the hearts of that class from which
our legislators are drawn, and the sop to Cerberus from fable has
become history. Their principles lay hold of the good, their
pelf of the bad, and thus those whom the constitution had placed
as guards to its portals, are sophisticated or suborned from their
duties. That paper money has some advantages, is admitted.
But that its abuses also are inevitable, and, by breaking up the
measure of value, makes a lottery of all private property, cannot
be denied. Shall we ever be able to put a constitutional veto on it ?
You say I must go to writing history. While in public life I
had not time, and now thai, I am retired, I am past the time.
To write history requires a whole life of observation, of inquiry,
of labor and correction. Its materials are not to be found among
the ruins of a decayed memory. At this day I should begin
where I ought to have left off. The " solve senes centem equum"
is a precept we learn in youth but for the practice of age ; and
were I to disregard it, it would be but a proof the more of its
soundness. If anything has ever merited to me the respect of
my fellow citizens, themselves, I hope, would wish me not to
lose it by exposing the decay of faculties of which it was the re-
ward. I must then, dear Sir, leave to yourself and your brethren
of the rising generation, to arraign at your tribunal the actions
of your predecessors, and to pronounce the sentence they may
have merited or incurred. If the sacrifices of that age have re-
sulted in the good of this, then all is well, and we shall be re-
warded by their approbation, and shall be authorized to say, " go
ye and do likewise." To yourself I tender personally the assur-
ance of my great esteem and respect.
TO MAK^UIS DE LA FArETTt.
MoNTioEiLO, May 14, 1817.
Although, dear Sir, much retired from the world, and med-
dling little in its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to
vol.. VII.
(56 J-EFFERSON'S 'WORKS.
salute at times my old friends, were it only to say and to know
that " all's well." Our hobby has been politics ; bat all here is
so quiet, and with you so desperate, that little matter is furnished
us for active attention. With you too, it has long been forbid-
den ground, and therefore imprudent for a foreign friend to tread,
in writing to you. But although our speculations might be in-
trusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable, and mine are sin-
cerely offered for the well-being of France. What government
she can bear, depends not on the state of science, however ex-
alted, in a select band of enlightened men, but on the condition
of the general mind. That, I am sure, is advanced and will ad-
vance ; and the last change of government was fortunate, inas-
much as the new will be less obstructive to the effects of that ad-
vancement. For I consider your foreign military oppressions as
an ephemeral obstacle only.
Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt ; but
that is a cheap price for the good it has done us. The establish-
ment of the necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof
that our government is solid, can stand the shock of war, and is ,
superior even to civil schism, are precious facts for us ; and of
these the strongest proofs were furnished, when, with four east-
ern States tied to us, as dead to living bodies, ail doubt was re-
moved as to the achievements of the war, had it continued. But
its best effect has been the complete suppression of party. The
federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was so,
have separated from their brethren who were mere Auglomen, and
are received with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even
Connecticut, as a State, and the last one expected to yield its
steady habits (which were essentially bigoted in politics as well
as religion), has chosen a republican governor, and republicau
legislature. Massachusetts indeed still lags; because most deeply
involved iu the parricide crimes and treasons of the war. But
her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh advancing on it, and i
all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut as the most
hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my atten-
tion. That is essentially a Q,uaker State, the fragment of a re-
OoKRESPONDENCE. g7
ligious sect which, there, in the other States, in England, are
a homogeneous mass, acting with one mind, and that directed by
the mother society in England. Dispersed, as the Jews, they
still form, as those do, one nation, foreign to the land they Ive
in. They are Protestant .Jesuits, imphcitly devoted to the will
of their superior, and forgetting all duties to their country in the
execution of the policy of their order. When war is proposed
with England, they have religious scruples ; but when with
Prance, these are laid by, and they become clamorous for it.
They are, however, silent, passive, and give no other trouble
than of whipping them along. Nor is the election of Monroe an
inefHcient circumstance in our felicities. Four and twenty years,
which he will accomplish, of administration in republican forms
and principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people
as to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition
of party dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened
society beyond imagination. The war then has done us all this
good, and the further one of assuring the world, that although
attached to peace from a sense of its blessings, we will meet war
when it is made necessary.
I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren.
The achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer o
question. But it is a very serious one, what will then become
of them ? Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are in-
capable of self-government. They will fall under military des-
potism, and become the murderous tools of the ambition of their
respective Bonapartes ; and whether this will be for their greater
happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to judge. No
one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind ex-
ercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the
question is not what we wish, but what is practicalile ? As their
sincere friend and brother then, I do believe the best thing for
them, would be for themselves to come to an accord with Spain,
under the guarantee of France, Russia, Holland, and the United
States, allowing to Spain a nominal supremacy, with authority
only to keep the peace among them, leaving them othe'rwise all
68 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
the powers of self-goverment, until their experience in them
their emancipation from their priests, and advancement in infor-
mation, shall prepare them for complete independence. 1 exclude
England from this confederacy, because her selfish principles
render her incapable of honoralile patronage or disinterested co-
operation ; unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a revolu-
lion should restore to her an honest government, one which will
permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an ex-
tension of her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern
province of Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should
revolt in mass, and send their royal family back to Portugal.
Brazil is more populous, more wealthy, more energetic, and as
wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly led, my dear friend,
while writing to you, to indulge in that line of sentiment in
which we have been always associated, forgetting that these are
matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have
still many years to be a spectator of these events. That these
years may indeed be many and happy, is the sincere prayer of
your affectionate friend.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS .TEFFERSON.
QuiN'Cv, May 18, ISIT.
Dear Sir, — Lyman was mortified that he could not visit Monr
ticello. He is gone to Europe a second time. I regret that he
did not see you, he would have executed any commission for you
in the literary line, at any pain or any expense. I have many
apprehensions for his health, which is very delicate and preca-
rious, but he is seized with the mania of all our young clerical
spirits for foreign travel ; I fear they will lose more than they ac-
quire, they will lose that unadulterated enthusiasm for their na-
tive country, which has produced the greatest characters among
us.
Oh ! Lord ! Do you think that Protestant Popedom is annihi-
lated in America ? Do you recollect, or have you ever attended
CORRESPONDENCE. gg
to the ecclesiastical strifes in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York,
and every part of New England ? What a mercy it is that these
people cannot whip, and crop, and pillory, and roast, as yet in
the United States ! If they could, they would. Do you know
the General of the Jesuits, and consequently all his host, have
their eyes on this country? Do you know that the Church of
England is employing more means and more art, to propagate
iheir demi-popery among us, than ever ? Quakers, Anabaptists,
Moravians, Swedenborgians, Methodists, Unitarians, Nothinga-
rians in all Europe are employing underhand means to propagate
their sectarian system in these States.
The multitude and diversity of them, you will say, is our se-
curity against them all. God grant it. But if we consider that
the Presbyterians and Methodists are far the most numerous and
the most likely to unite, let a George Whitefield arise, with a
military cast, like Mahomet or Loyola, and what will become of
all the other sects who can never unite ?
My friends or enemies continue to overwhelm me with books.
Whatever may be their intention, charitable or otherwise, they
certainly contribute to continue me to vegetate, much as I have
done for the sixteen years last past.
Sir John Malcolm's history of Persia, and Sir William Jones'
works, are now poured out upon me, and a little cargo is coming
from Europe. What can I do with all this learned lumber ? Is
it necessary to salvation to investigate all these Cosmogonies and
Mythologies ? Are Bryant, Gebelin, Dupuis, or Sir William Jones,
right? What a frown upon mankind was the premature. death
of Sir William Jones ! Why could not Jones and Dupuis have
conversed or corresponded with each other ? Had Jones read
Dupuis, or Dupuis Jones, the works of both would be immense-
ly improved, though each would probably have adhered to his
system.
I should admire to see a counsel composed of Gebelin, Bryant,
Jones and Dupuis. Let them live together and compare notes.
The human race ought to contribute to furnish them with all the
books in the Universe, and the means of subsistence.
70 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
I am not expert enough in Italian to read Botta, and I know
not that he has been translated. Indeed, I have been so little sat-
isfied with histories of the American revolution, that I have long
since ceased to read them. The truth is lost, in adulatory panegy-
rics, and in vituperary insolence. I wish you, Mr. Madison, and
Mr. Monroe, success in your collegiate institution. And I wish
that superstition in religion, exciting superstition in politics, and
both united in directing military force, alias glory, may never
blow up all your benevolent and philanthropic lucubrations. But
the history of all ages is against you.
It is said that no effort in favor of virtue is ever lost. I doubt
whether it was ever true ; whether it is now true ; but hope it
will be true. In the moral government of the world, no doubt
it was, is, and ever will be true ; but it has not yet appeared to
be true on this earth.
I am. Sir, sincerely your friend.
P. S. Have you seen the Philosophy of Human Nature, and
the History of the War in the western States, from Kentucky?
How vigorously science and literature spring up, as well as pat-
riotism and heroism, in transalleganian regions ? Have you seen
Wilkinson's history ? «fcc., &c.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
QuiNCY, May 26, 1817.
Dear Sir, — Mr. Leslie Combes of Kentucky has sent mo a
history of the late war, in the western country, by Mr. Robert
B. M-SiflVe, and the Philosophy of Human Nature, by Joseph
Buclianan. The history I am glad to see, because it will pre-
serve facts to the honor and immortal glory of the western people.
Indeed, I am not sorry that the Philosophy has been published,
because it has been a maxim with me for sixty years at least,
never to be afraid of a book.
Nevertheless, I cannot foresee much utility in revJev-'ing, in
CORRESPONDENCE. 71
this country, the controversy between the Spiritnahsts and the Ma-
terialists. Why should time be wasted in disputing about two
substances, when both parties agree that neither knows anything
about either
If spirit is an abstraction, a conjecture, a chimera ; matter is an
abstraction, a conjecture, a chimera ; for we know as much, or
rather as little, about one as the other. We may read Cud^s-orth,
Le Clerc, Leibnitz, Berkley, Hume, Bolingbroke and Priestley, and
a million other volumes in all ages, and be obliged at last to con-
fess that we have learned nothing. Spirit and matter still re-
main riddles. Define the terms, however, and the controversy
is soon settled. If spirit is an active something, and matter an
inactive something, it is certain that one is not the other. We
can no more conceive that extension, or solidity, can think, or
feel, or see, or hear, or taste, or smell ; than we can conceive
that perception, memory, imagination, or reason, can remove a
mountain, or blow a rock. This enigma has puzzled mankind
from the beginning, and probably will to the end. Economy of
time requires that we should waste no more in so idle an amuse-
ment.
In the eleventh discourse of Sir William Jones, before the
Asiatic Society, vol. iii., page 229, of his works, we find that
Materialists and Immaterialists existed in India, and that they
accused each other of atheism, before Berkley, or Priestley, or
Dupuis, or Plato, or Pythagoras, were born.
Indeed, Newton himself appears to have discovered nothing
that was not known to the ancient Indians. He has only fur-
nished more complete demonstrations of the doctrines they taught.
Sir John Malcolm agrees with Jones and Dupuis, in the Astro-
logical origin of heathen mythologies. Vain man ! mind your
own business ! Do no wrong ; — do all the good you can ! Eat
your canvas-back ducks! Drink your Burgundy ! Sleep your
siesta when necessary, and trust in god !
What a mighty bubble, what a tremendous waterspout, has
Napoleon been, accordnig to his life, written by himself ! He
says he was the creature of the principlos and manners of the
72 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS
age ; by which, no doubt, he means the age of Reason ; the pro-
gress of Manilius' Ratio, of Plato's Logos, &c. I believe him.
A whirlwind raised him, and a whirlwind blowed him away to
St. Helena. He is very confident that the age of Reason is not
past, and so am I ; but I hope that Reason will never again
rashly and hastily create such creatures as him. Liberty, equal-
ity, fraternity, and humanity, will never again, I hope, blindly
surrender themselves to an unbounded ambition for national con-
quests, nor implicitly commit themselves to the custody and
guardianship of arms and heroes. If they do, they will again
end in St. Helena, Inquisitions, Jesuits, and sacre liqiies.
Poor Laureate Southey is writhing in torments under the laugh
of the three kingdoms, all Europe, and America, upon the publi-
cation of his " Wat Tyler." I wonder whether he or Bonaparte
suffera most. I congratulate you, and Madison, and Monroe, on
your noble employment in founding a university. From such a
nobln Triumvirate, the world will expect something very great
and very new ; but if it contains anything quite original, and
very excellent, I fear the prejudices are too deeply rooted to suf-
fer it to last long, though it may be accepted at first. It will not
always have three such colossal reputations to support it.
The Pernambuco Ambassador, his Secretary of legation, and
private Secretary, respectable people, have made me .a visit.
Having been some year or two in a similar situation, I could not
but sympathize with him. As Bonaparte says, the age of Reason
is not ended. Nothing can totally extinguish, or echpse the light
which has been shed abroad by the press.
I am. Sir, with hearty wishes for your health and happiness,
your friend and humble servant.
TO DOCTOB JOHN MANNERS.
.Mo.M'KKI.Ul, JlUK' 12, 1817.
Sir, — Your favor of May 20th has been received some time
Rince, but the increasing inertness of age renders me slow m
CORRESPONDENCE. 7|j
obeying the calls of the writing-table, and less equal than I have
been to its labors.
My opinion on the right of Expatriation has been, so long ago
as the year 1776, consigned to record in the act of the Virginia
code, drawn by myself, recognizing the right expressly, and pre-
scribing the mode of exercising it. The evidence of this natural
right, like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our facul-
ties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophis-
tical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of
every man. We do not claim these under the charters of kings
or legislators, but under the King of kings. If he has made it
a law in the natuie of man to pursue his own happiness, he has
left him free in the choice of place as well as mode ; and we
may safely call on the whole body of English jurists to produce
the map on which Nature has traced, for each individual, the
geographical line which she forbids him to cross in pursuit of
happiness. It certainly does not exist in his mind. Where,
then, is it? I believe, too, I might safely affirm, that there is
not another nation, civilized or savage, which has ever denied
this natural right. I doubt if there is another which refuses its
exercise. I know it is allowed in some of the most respectable
countries of continental Europe, nor have I ever heard of one in
which it was not. How it is among our savage neighbor*, who
have no law but that of Nature, we all know.
Though long estranged from legal reading and reasoning, and
little familiar with the decisions of particular judges, I have con-
sidered that respecting the obligation of the common law in this
country as a very plain one, and merely a question of document.
If we are under that law, the document which made us so can
surely be produced ; and as far as this can be produced, so far we
^re subject to it, and farther we are not. Most of the States did,
1 believe, at an early period of their legislation, adopt the English
l-aw, common and statute, more or less in a body, as far as locali-
ties admitted of their application. In these States, then, the
common law, so far as adopted, is the lex-loci. Then comes the
law of Congress, declaring that what is law in any State, shall
74 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
be the rule of decision in their courts, as to matters arising within
that State, except when controlled by their own statutes. But
this law of Congress has been considered as extending to civil
eases only ; and that no such provision has been made for crim-
inal ones. A similar provision, then, for criminal offences, would,
in like manner, be an adoption of more or less of the common
law, as part of the lex-loci, where the offence is committed ; and
would cover the whole field of legislation for the general gov-
ernment. I have turned to the passage you refer to in Judge
Cooper's Justinian, and should suppose the general expressions
there used would admit of modifications conformable to this doc-
trine. It would alarm me indeed, in any case, to find myself
entertaining an opinion different from that of a judgment so ac-
curately organized as his. But I am quite persuaded that, when-
ever Judge Cooper shall be led to consider that question simply
and nakedly, it is so much within his course of thinking, as
liberal as logical, that, rejecting all blind and undefined obliga-
tion, he will hold to the positive and explicit precepts of the law
alone. Accept these hasty sentiments on the subjects you pro-
pose, as hazarded in proof of my great esteem and respect.
TO BARON HUMBOLDT.
MoNTioELLo, June IS, 1817.
Dear Sir, — The receipt of your Distributio Geographica
Plaatarum, with the duty of thanking you for a work which
sheds so much new and valuable light on botanical science, ex-
cites the desire, also, of presenting myself to your recollection,
and of expressing to you those sentiments of high admiration
and esteem, which, although long silent, have never slept. The-
physical information you have given us of a country hitherto so
shamefully unknown, has come exactly in time to guide our un-
derstandings in the great political revolution now bringing it into
prominence on the stage of the world. The issue of its strug-
gles, as they respect Spain, is no longer matter of doubt. Ab it
COERESPONDENOE. 75
respects their own liberty, peace and happiness, we cannot be
quite so certain. Whether the blinds of bigotry, the shackles
of the priesthood, and the fascinating glare of rank and wealth,
give fair play to the common sense of the mass of their people, so
far ds to qualify them for self-government, is what we do not
know. Perhaps our wishes may be stronger than our hopes.
The first principle of republicanism is, that the lex-majoris partis
is the fLUidamental law of every society of individuals of equal
rights; to consider the will of the society enounced by the ma-
jority of a single vote, as sacred as if unanimous, is the first of
all lessons in importance, yet the last which is thoroughly learnt.
This law once disregarded, no other remains but that of force,
which ends necessarily in military despotism. This has been
the history of the French revolution, and I wish the understand-
ing of our Southern brethren may be sufficiently enlarged and
firm to see that their fate depends on its sacred observance.
In our America we are turning to public improvements.
Schools, roads, and canals, are everywhere -either in operation or
contemplation. The most gigantic undertaking yet proposed, is
that of New York, for drawing the waters of Lake Erie into the
Hudson. The distance is 353 miles, and the height to be sur-
mounted 661 feet. The expense will be great, bat its effect in-
calculably powerful in favor of the Atlantic States. Internal
navigation by steamboats is rapidly spreading through all our
States, and that by sails and oars will ere long be looked back to
as among the curiosities of antiquity. We count much, too, on
its efiicacy for harbor defence ; and it will soon be tried for nav-
igation by sea. We consider the employment of the contribu-
tions which our citizens can spare, after feeding, and clothing,
and lodging themselves comfortably, as more useful, more moral,
and even more splendid, than that preferred by Europe, of de-
stroying human life, labor and happiness.
I write this letter without knowing where it will find you.
But wherever that may be, I am sure it will find you engaged in
something instructive for man. If at Paris, you are of course in
habits of society with Mi'. Gallatin, our worthy, oui- able, and ex-
76 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
cellent minister, who will give you, from time to time, the de-
tails of the progress of a country in whose prosperity you are so
good as to feel an interest, and in which your name is revered
among those of the great worthies of the world. God bless you,
and preserve you long to enjoy the gratitude of your fellow men,
and to be blessed with honors, health and happiness.
TO M. DE MAEBOIS.
MoNTicKLLO, June 14, 1817.
I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy of the interesting narrative
of the Complet d'Arnold, which you have been so kind as to
send me. It throws light on that incident of history which we
did not possess before. An incident which merits to be known,
as a lesson to mankind, in all its details. This mark of your
attention recalls to my mind the earlier period of life a-t which I
had the pleasure of your personal acquaintance, and renews the
sentiments of high respect and esteem with which that acquaint-
ance inspired me. I had not failed to accompany your personal
sufferings during the civil convulsions of your country, and had
sincerely sympathized with them. An awful period, indeed, has
passed in Europe since our first acquaintance. When I left
France at the close of '89, your revolution was, as I thought,
under the direction of able and honest men. But the madness
of some of their successors, the vices of others, the malicious in-
trigues of an envious and corrupting neighbor, the tracasserie of
the Directory, the usurpations, the havoc, and devastations of
your Attila, and the equal usurpations, depredations and oppress-
ions cf your hypocritical deliverers, will form a mournful period
in the history of man, a period of which the last chapter will
not be seen in your day or mine, and one which I still fear is
to be written in characters of blood. Had Bonaparte reflected
that such is the moral construction of the world, that no national
crime passes unpunished in the long run, he would not now be
in the cage of St. Helena ; and were your present oppressors to
C0REE8P0NDENCE. 77
reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries
the penaUies on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on
Ihem on future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which
they are now sowing with a large hand, will not fail to produce
their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway,
they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape, and deem
infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain. Oar lot
has been happier. When you witnessed our first struggles in
the war of independence, you little calculated, more than we
did, on the rapid growth and prosperity of this country ; on the
practical demonstration it was about to exhibit, of the happy
truth that man is capable of self-government, and only rendered
otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced on
him by the wicked acts of his tyrants.
I have much confidence that we shall proceed successfully for
ages to come, and that, contrary to the principle of Montesquieu,
it will be seen that the larger the extent of country, the more firm
its republican structure, if founded, not on conquest, but in princi-
ples of compact and equality. My hope of its duration is built
much on the enlargement of the resources of life going hand in
hand with the enlargement of territory, and the belief that men are
disposed to live honestly, if the means of doing so are open to them.
With the consolation of this belief in the future result of our labors.
I have that of other prophets who foretell distant events, that I
shall not live to see it falsified. My theory nas always been.
that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and
pleasanter than the gloom of despair. I wish to yourself a long
life of honors, health and happiness.
TO AIUBERT GALLATIN
MoNTioELLO, June 10, 1817.
Dear Sir, — The importance that the enclosed letters .should
safely reach their destination, impels me to avail myself of the
protection of your cover. This is an inconvenience to which
78 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
your situation exposes you, while it adds to the opportunities of
exercising yourself in works of charity.
According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before yout
departure, we have had almost an entire change in the body of
Congress. The unpopularity of the compensation law was com-
pleted, by the manner of repealing it as to all the world except
themselves. In some States, it is said, every member is changed ;
in all, many. What opposition there was to the original law.
was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of those have
been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I
have never known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation ;
and what is remarkable is, that it was spontaneous. The news-
papers were almost entirely silent, and the people not only unled
by their leaders, but in opposition to them. I confess I was
highly pleased with this proof of the innate good sense, the vigi-
lance, and the determination of the people to act for them-
selves.
Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note ; a
navigation act, particularly, applicable to those nations only who
have navigation acts ; pinching one of them especially, not only
in the general way, but in the intercourse with her foreign pos-
sessions. This part may re-act on us, and it remains for trial
which may bear longest. A law respecting our conduct as a
neutral between Spain and her contending colonies, was passed
by a majority of one only, I believe, and against the very general
sentiment of our country. It is thought to strain our complais-
ance to Spain beyond her right or merit, and almost against the
right of the other party, and certainly against the claims they
have to our good wishes and neighborly relations. That we
should wish to see the people of other countries free, is as nat'iral,
and at least as justifiable, as that one King should wish to see the
Kings of other countries maintained in their despotism. Right
to both parties, innocent favor to the juster cause, is our proper
sentiment.
You will have learned that an act for internal improvement,
after passing both Houses, was negatived by the President. The
( ORRESPONDENOE. 79
act was founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in
the constitution which authorizes Congress " to lay taxes, to pay
the debts and provide for the general welfare," was an extension
of the powers specifically enumerated to whatever would promote
the general welfare ; and this, you know, was the federal doc-
trine. Whereas, our tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost the
only landmark which now divides the federalists from the re-
publicans, that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for
the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enu-
merated ; and that, as it was never meant they should provide
for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers,
so it could not have been meant they should raise money for pur-
poses which the enumeration did not place under their action ;
consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of
the purposes for which they may raise money. I think the pas-
sage and rejection of this bill a fortunate incident. Every State
will certainly concede the power ; and this will be a national
confirmation of the grounds of appeal to them, and will settle
forever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a mere grammati-
cal quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
claim of universal power. For in the phrase, " to lay taxes, to
pay the debts and provide for the general welfare," it is a mere
question of syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed
by the first or are distinct and co-ordinate powers ; a question
unequivocally decided by the exact definition of powers imme-
diately following. It is fortunate for another reason, as the
States, in conceding the power, will modify it, either by requir-
ing the federal ratio of expense in each State, or otherwise, so
as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this caution,
intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have
the appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called " log-
ging," the term of the farmers for their .exchanges of aid in roll-
ing together the logs of their newly-cleared grounds. Three of
our papers have presented us the copy of an act of the legislature
of New York, which, if it has really passed, will carry us back
80 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
to the times of the darkest bigotry and barbarism, to find a paral
lei. Its purport is, that all those who shall hereafter join in
communion \yith the religious sect of Shaking Q,uakers, shall be
deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and all their chil-
dren and property taken out of their hands. This act being pub-
lished nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any
history of the circumstances of its passage, I am not without a
hope it may have been a mere abortive attempt. It contrasts
singularly with a cotemporary vote of the Pennsylvania legisla-
ture, who, on a proposition to make the belief in God a neces-
sary qualification for oflice, rejected it by a great majority, al-
though assuredly there was not a single atheist in their body.
And you remember to have heard, that when the act for religious
freedom was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion to insert the
name of Jesus Christ before the phrase, " the author of our holy
religion," which stood in the bill, was rejected, although that
was the creed of a great majority of them.
I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now
produces scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison's election there
was little, on Monroe's all but none. In Mr. Adams' time and
mine, parties were so nearly balanced as to make the struggle
fearful for our peace. But since the decided ascendency of the
republican body, federalism has looked on with silent but unre-
sisting anguish. In the middle, southern and western States, it
is as low as it ever can be ; for nature has made some men mon-
archists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course,
there always will be.
#* *# **# ###
We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in
Maine, the mercury was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of
Fahrenheit, which is sixteen degrees lower than it was in Paris in
1788-9. Here it was at six degrees above zero, which is our
greatest degree of cold. ,
Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my
constant and aifectionate friendship.
CORRESPONDENCE. 81
TO MR. ADAMS.
Poplar Forest, September 8, 1817.
Dear Sir, — A month's absence from Monticello has added to
the delay of acknowledging your last letters, and indeed for a
month before I left it, our projected college gave me constant
employment ; for, being the only visitor in its immediate neigh-
borhood, all its administrative business falls on me, and that,
where building is going on, is not a little. In yours of July
15th, i^ou express a wish to see our plan, but the present visitors
have sanctioned no plan as yet. Our predecessors, the first trus-
tees, had desired me to propose one to them, and it was on that
occasion I asked and received the benefit of your ideas on the
subject. Digesting these with such other schemes as I had been
able to collect, I made out a prospectus, the looser and less satis-
factory from the uncertain amount of the funds to which it was
to be adapted. This I addressed, in the form of a letter, to their
President, Peter Carr, which, going before the legislature when
a change in the constitution of the college was asked, got into
the public papers, and, among others, I think you will find it in
Niles' Register, in the early part of 1815. This, however, is to
be considered but as a premiere ebauche, for the consideration
and amendment of the present visitors, and to be accommodated
to one of two conditions of things. If the institution is to de-
pend on private donations alone, we shall be forced to accumu-
late on the shoulders of four professors a mass of sciences which,
if the legislature adopts it, should be distributed among ten. We
shall be ready for a professor of languages in April next, for two
others the following year, and a fourth a year after. How happy
should we be if wc could have a Ticknor for our first. A crit-
ical classic is scarcely to be found in the United States. To this
professor, a fixed salary of five hundred dollars, with liberal tui-
tion fees from the pupils, will probably give two thousand dollars
a year. We are now on the look-out for a professor, meaning to
accept of none but of the very first order.
You ask if I have seen Buchanan's, McAfee's, or Wilkinson's
VOL. VII. 6
82 - JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
books ? I have seen none of them, but have lately read, with
great pleasure, Reid & Eaton's life of Jackson, if life may be
called what is merely a history of his campaign of 1814. Reid's
part is well written. Eaton's continuation is better for its matter
than style. The whole, however, is valuable.
I have lately received a pamphlet of extreme interest from
France. It is De Pradt's Historical Recital of the first return of
Louis XVIII. to Paris. It is precious for the minutias of the pro-
ceedings which it details, and for their authenticity, as from an
eye-witness. Being but a pamphlet I enclose it for your perusal,
assured, if you have not seen it, that it will give you pleasure.
I will ask its return, because I value it as a morsel of genuine
history, a thing so rare as to be always valuable. I have received
some information from an eye-witness also of what passed on the
occasion of the second return of Louis XYIII. The Emperor
Alexander, it seems, was solidly opposed to this. In the consul-
tation of the allied sovereigns and their representatives with the
executive council at Paris, he insisted that the Bourbons were
too incapable and unworthy of being placed at the head of the
nation ; declared he would support any other choice they should
freely make, and continued to urge most strenuously that some
other choice should be made. The debates ran high and warm,
and broke oif after midnight, every one retaining his own opin-
ion. He lodged, as you know, at Talleyrand's. When thej'' re-
turned into council the next day, his host had overcome his firm-
ness. Louis XVIII. was accepted, and through the management
of Talleyrand, accepted without any capitulation, although the
sovereigns would have consented that he should be first required
to subscribe and swear to the constitution prepared, before per-
mission to enter the kingdom. It would seem as if Talleyrand
had been afraid to admit the smallest interval of time, lest a
change of mind would bring back Bonaparte on them. But I
observe that the friends of a limited monarchy there consider the
popular representation as much improved by the late alteration,
and confident it will in the end produce a fixed government in
CORRESPONDEKOE. gg
which an elective body, fairly representative of the people, will
be an efficient element.
I congratulate Mrs. Adams and yourself on the return of your
excellent and distinguished son, and our country still more on
such a minister of their foreign affairs ; and I renew to both the
assurance of my high and friendly respect and esteem.
TO GEOEGE FLOWER.
Poi'LAR FoRRST, September 12, 1817.
Dear' Sir, — Your favor of August 12th was yesterday re-
ceived at this place, and I learn from it with pleasure that you
have found a tract of country which will suit you for settlement.
To us your first purchase would have been more gratifying, by
adding yourself and your friends to our society ; but the over-
ruling consideration, with us as with you, is your own advantage,
and as it would doubtless be a great comfort to you to have your
ancient neighbors and friends settled around you. I sincerely wish
that your proposition to "purchase a tract of land in the Illinois
on favorable terms, for introducing a colony of English farm-
ers," may encounter no difficulties from the established rules of
our land department. The general law prescribes an open sale,
where all citizens may compete on an equal footing for any lot
of land which attracts their choice. To dispense with this in
any particular case, requires a special law of Congress, and to
special legislation we are generally averse, lest a principle of fa-
vpritism should creep in and pervert that of equal rights. It
has, however, been done on some occasions where a special na-
tional advantage has been expected to overweigh that of adher-
ence to the general rule. The promised introduction of the cul-
ture of the vine procured a special law in favor of the Swiss set-
tlement on the Ohio. That of the culture of oil, wine and other
southern productions, did the same lately for the French settle-
ment on the Tombigbee. It remains to be tried whether that
of an improved system of farming, interesting to so great a pro-
64 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
portion of our citizens, may not also be thought worth a dispen-
sation with the general rule. This I suppose is the principal
iground on which your proposition will be questioned. For al-
though as to other foreigners it is thought better to discourage
their settling together in large masses, wherein, as in our German
settlements, they preserve for a long time their own languages,
habits, and principles of government, and that they should dis-
tribute themselves sparsely among the natives for quicker amalga-
mation. Yet English emigrants are without this inconvenience.
They differ from us little . but in their principles of government,
and most of those (merchants excepted) who come here, are suffi-
ciently disposed to adopt ours. What the issue, however, of
your proposition may probably be, I am less able to advise you
than many others ; for during the last eight or ten years I have
no knowledge of the administration of the land office or the prin-
ciples of its government. Even the persons on whom it will de-
pend are all changed within that interval, so as to leave me small
means of being useful to you. Whatever they may be, how-
ever, they shall be freely exercised for your advantage, and that,
not on the selfish principle of increasing our own population at
the expense of other nations, for the additions to that from emi-
gration are but as a drop in a bucket to those by natural procrea-
tion, but to consecrate a sanctuary for those whom the misrule
of Europe may compel to seek happiness in other climes. This
refuge once known will produce reaction on the happiness even
of those who remain there, by warning their task-masters that
when the evils of Egyptian oppression become heavier than those
of the abandonment of country, another Canaan is open where
their subjects will be received as brothers, and secured against
like oppressions by a participation in the right of self-govern*
ment. If additional motives could be wanting with us to the
maintenance of this right, they would be found in the animating
consideration that a single good government becomes thus a
blessing to the whole earth, its welcome to the oppressed restrain-
iaig within certain limits the measure of their oppressions. But
should even this be counteracted by violence on the right of ex-
CORRESPONDENCE 85
patriation, the other branch of our example then presents itself
for imitation, to rise on their rulers and do as we have done.
You have set to your own country a good example, by showing
them a peaceable mode of reducing their rulers to the necessity
of becoming more wise, more moderate, and more honest, and I
sincerely pray that the example may work for the benefit of those
who cannot follow it, as it will for your own.
With Mr. Burckbeck, the associate of your late explanatory
journeying, I have not the happiness of personal acquaintance ;
but I know him through his narrative of your journeyings to-
gether through France. The impressions received from that,
give me confidence that a participation with yourself in assur-
ances of the esteem and respect of a stranger will not be unac-
ceptable to him, and the less when given through you and asso-
ciated with those to yourself.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEBSON.
QuiNcv, October in, 1817.
Dear Sir, — I thank you for your kind congratulations on the
return of my little family from Europe. To receive them all in
fine health and good spirits, after so long an absence, was a great-
er blessing than at my time of Hfe when they went away, I had
any right to hope, or reason to expect.
If the Secretary of State can give satisfaction to his fellow-
citizens in his new office, it will be a source of consolation to me
while I live ; although it is not probable that I shall long be a
witness of his good success, or ill success. I shall soon be obliged
to say to him, and to you, and to your country and mine, God
bless you all ! Fare-thee-well ! Indeed, I need not wait a mo-
ment. I can say all that now, with as good a will, and as clear
a conscience, as at any time past, or future.
I thank you, also, for the loan of De Pradt's narration of the
intrigues, at the second restoration of the Bourbons. In this, as
in many other instances, is seen the influence of a single subtle
86 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
mind, and a trifling accident, in deciding the fate of mankind for
iges. De Pradt and Talleyrand were well associated.
I have ventured to send the pamphlet to Washington with a
charge to return it to you. The French have a King, a cham-
ber of Peers, and a chamber of Deputies. Voila ! les ossimens
of a constitution of a limited monarchy ; and of a good one, pro-
vided the bones are united by good joints, and knitted together
by strong tendons. But where does the sovereignty reside ?
Are the three branches sufficiently defined ? A fair representa-
tion of the body of the people by elections, sufficiently frequent,
is essential to a free government ; but if the Commons cannot
make themselves respected by the Peers, and the King, they can
do no good, nor prevent any evil.
Can any organization of government secure public and private
liberty without a general or universal freedom, without license,
or licentiousness of thinking, speaking, and writing. Have the
French such freedom ? Will their religion, or policy, allow it ?
When I think of liberty, and a free government, in an ancient,
opulent, populous, and commercial empire, I fear I shall always
recollect a fable of Plato.
Love is a son of the god of riches, and the goddess of poverty.
He inherits from his father the intrepidity of his courage, the
enthusiasm of his thoughts, his generosity, his prodigality, his
confidence in himself, the opinion of his own merit, the impa-
tience to have always the preference ; but he derives from his
mother that indigence which makes him always a beggar ; that
importunity with which he demands everything; that timidity
which sometimes hinders him from daring to ask anything ; that
disposition which he has to servitude, and that dread of being
despised, which he can never overcome.
Such is Love according to Plato. Who calls him a demon?
And such is liberty in France, and England, and all other great,
rich, old, corrunted commercial nations. The opposite qualities
of the father and mother are perpetually tearing to pieces himself
and his friends as well as his enemies.
Mr. Monroe has got the universal character among all our com-
OORRESPONDEKOE. 87
mon people of " A very smart man." And veiily I am of the
same mind. I know not another who could have executed so
great a plan so cleverly.
I wish him the same happy success through his whole admin-
istration.
I am, Sir, with respest and friendship, yours, J. A.
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN q. ADAMS.
MoNTjcELLo, November 1, 181*7,
Deak Sir, — Yours of the 4th of October was not received here
until the 20th, having been sixteen days on its passage ; since
which unavoidable avocations have made this the first moment it
has been in my power to acknowledge its receipt. Of the char-
acter of M. de Pradt his political writings famish a tolerable es-
timate, but not so full as you have favored me with. He is elo-
quent, and his pamphlet on colonies shows him ingenious. I
was gratified by his Recit Historique, because, pretending, as all
men do, to some character, and he to one of some distinction, I
supposed he would not place before the world facts of glaring
falsehood, on which so many living and distinguished witnesses
could convict him. We, too, who are retired from the business
of the world, are glad to catch a glimpse of truth, here and there
as we can, to guide our path through the boundless field of fable
in which we are bewildered by public prints, and even by those
calling themselves histories. A word of truth to us is like the
drop of water supplicated from the tip of Lazarus' finger. It is
as an observation of latitude and longitude to the mariner long
enveloped in clouds, for correcting the ship's way.
On the subject of weights and measures, yon will have, at its
threshold, to encounter the question on which Solon and Ly-
curgus acted difi'erently. Shall we mould our citizens to the
law, or the law to our citizens? And in solving this question
their peculiar character is an element not to be neglected. Of
the two only things in nature which can furnish an invariable
88 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Standard, to wit, the dimensions of the globe itself, and the time
of its diurnal revolution on its axis, it is not perhaps of much
importance which we adopt. That of the dimensions of the
globe, prefeiTed ultimately by the French, after first adopting the
other, has been objected to from the difficulty, not to say imprac-
ticability, of the verification of their admeasurement by other na-
tions. Except the portion of a meridian which they adopted for
their operation, there is not another on the globe which fulfils the
requisite conditions, to wit, of so considerable length, that length
too divided, not very unequally, by the 4.5th degree of latitude,
and terminating at each end in the ocean. Now, this singular
line lies wholly in France and Spain. Besides the immensity
of expense and time which a verification would always require,
it cannot be undertaken by any nation without the joint consent
of these two powers. France having once performed the work
and refusing, as she may, to let any other nation re-examine it,
she makes herself the sole depository of the original standard foi
all nations ; and all must send to her to obtain, and from time tc
time to prove their standards. To this, indeed, it may be an-
swered, that there can be no reason to doubt that the mensuration
has been as accurately performed as the intervention of numerous
waters, and of high ridges of craggy mountains, would admit ;
that all the calculations have been free of error, their coincidences
faithfully reported, and that, whether in peace or war, to foes as
well as friends, free access to the original will at all times be ad-
mitted. In favor of the standard to be taken from the time em-'
ployed in a revolution of the earth on its axis, it may be urged
that this revolution is a matter of fact present to all the world,
that its division into seconds of time is known and received by
all the world, that the length of a pendulum vibrating seconds
ill the different circles of latitude is already known to all, and
cau at any time nid in any place be ascertained by any nation
or individual, and mferred by known laws from their own to the
medium latitude of 45°, whenever any doubt may make this de-
sirable ; and that this is the particular standard which has at dif-
CORRESPONDENCE. gg
ferent times been contemplated and desn-ed* by the philosophers
of every nation, and even by those of France, except at the par-
ticular moment when this change was suddenly proposed and
adopted, and under circumstances peculiar to the history of the
moment. But the cogent reason which will decide the fate of
whatever you report is, that England has lately adopted the ref-
erence of its measures to the pendulum. It is the mercantile
part of our community which will have most to do in this inno-
vation ; it is that which having command of all the presses can
make the loudest outcry, and you know their identification with
English regulations, practices, and prejudices. It is from this
identification alone you can hope to be permitted to adopt even
the English reference to a pendulum. But the English propo-
sition goes only to say what proportion their measures bear to
the second pendulum of their own latitude, and not at all to
change their unit, or to reduce into any simple order the chaos
of their weights and measures. That would be innovation, and
innovation there is heresy and treason. Whether the Senate
meant more than this I do not know ; and much doubt if more
can he effected. However, in endeavors to improve our situa-
tion, we should never despair ; and I sincerely wish you may be
able to rally us to either standard, and to give us an unit, the
aliquot part of something invariable which may be applied simply
and conveniently to our measures, weights, and coins, and most
especially that the decimal divisions may pervade the whole.
The convenience of this in our monied system has been approved
by all, and France has followed the example. The volume of
tracts which you have noted in the library of Congress, contains
everything which I had then been able to collect on this subject.
You will find some details which may be of use in two thin
4to vols., Nos. 399, 400, of chapter xxiv. ; the latter being a col-
lection of sheets selected from the '' Encyclopedic Meihodique,"
* If conforming to this desire of other nations, we adopt the second pendulum,
^\ of that for our foot will be the same as ! or j% of the second rod, because that
rod is to the pendulum as 3 to 2. This would make our foot i inch less than the
oreaent one.
90 JEFFERSOX'S WOEKS.
on Lhe weights, measures and coins of all nations, bound up to-
gether and alone ; and the former a supplement by Beyerle.
Cooper's Emporium too, for May 1812, and August 1813, may
offer something. The reports of the Committees of Parliament
of 1758-9, I think you will find in Postlethwaite's Dictionary,
which is also in the library, chapter 20, No. 10. That of Mechain
and Delambre I have not, nor do I know who has it.
I have lately seen a book which your office ought to possess,
if it has it not already, entitled " Memoir e sur la Louisiana,
par M. le Comte de Vergennes, 8vo, Paris, chez Lepetit, Jeune,
1802." It contains more in detail the proofs of the extent of
Louisiana as far as the Rio Grande than I have ever before seen,
and its author gives it authenticity. It has been executed with
great industry and research into the French records. This re-
minds me of a MS. which Governor Claiborne found in a private
family in Louisiana, being a journal kept (I forget by whom,
but) by a confidential oflicer of the government, proving exactly
by what connivance between the agents of the compagnie (F ac-
cident and the Spaniards these last smuggled settlements into
Louisiana as far as Assinais, Adais, &c.. for the purpose of cov-
ering the contraband trade of the company. Claiborne being
afraid to trust the original by mail without keeping a copy, sent
it on. It arrived safe, and was deposited in the office of State.
He then sent me the copy on the destruction of the office at
Washington by the British, apprehending the original might be
involved in that destruction. I sent the copy to Colonel Monroe,
then Secretary of State, with a request to return it if the original
was safe, and to keep it if not. I have heard no more of it ; but
will now request of you to have search made for the original, and
if safe, to return me the copy. I propose to deposit it with the
historical committee of the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia,
for safe keeping. I have no use nor wish for such a thing my-
sef, but think it will be safer in two deposits than one. My rec-
ommendation to Colonel Monroe, was to have it printed. I
have barely left myself room to express my satisfaction at your
call to the important office you hold, and to tender you the as-
iirance of my great esteem and respect.
CORRESPONDElSrOE. 91
TO MB. DUPONCEAU.
Mo^TIOKLL(l, November 7, 1817.
Dear Sib, — A part of the information of which the expe-
dition of Lewis and Clarke was the object, has been communi-
cated to the world by the publication of their journal ; but much
and valuable matter yet remains uncommunicated. The cor-
rection of the longitudes of their map is essential to its value ;
to which purpose their observations of the lunar distances are
to be calculated and applied. The new subjects they discov-
ered in the vegetable, animal, and mineral departments, are to
be digested and made known. The numerous vocabularies they
obtained of the Indian languages are to be collated and published.
Although the whole expense of the expedition was furnished by
the public, and the information to be derived from it was theirs
also, yet on the return of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, the govern-
ment thought it just to leave to them any pecuniary benefit
which might result from a publication of the papers, and sup-
posed, indeed, that this would secure the best form of publica-
tion. But the property in these papers still remained in the gov-
ernment for the benefit of their constituents. With the measures
taken by Governor Lewis for their publication, I was never ac-
quainted. After his death. Governor Clarke put them, in the first
instance, into the hands of the late Doctor Barton, from whom some
of them passed to Mr. Biddle, and some again, I believe, from him
to Mr. Allen. While the MS. books of journals were in the hands
of Dr. Barton, I wrote to him, on behalf of Governor Lewis'
family, requesting earnestly, that, as soon as these should be pub-
lished, the originals might be returned, as the family wished to have
them preserved. He promised in his answer that it should be
faithfully done. After his death, I obtained, through the kind
agency of Mr. Correa, from Mrs. Barton, three of those books, of
which I knew there had been ten or twelve, having myself read
them. These were all she cotdd find. The rest, therefore, I
presume, are in the hands of the other gentlemen. After the
agency I had had in effecting this expedition, I thought myself
92 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
authorized, and, indeed, that it would he expected of me, that I
should follow up the subject, and endeavor to obtain its fruits foi
the public. I wrote to General Clarke, therefore, for authority
to receive the original papers. He gave it in the letters to Mr.
Biddle and to myself, which I now enclose. As the custody of
these papers belonged properly to the War-Office, and that was
vacant at the time, I have waited several months for its being
filled. But the office still remaining vacant, and my distance
rendering any effectual measures, by myself, impracticable, I ask
the agency of your committee, within whose province I propose
to place the matter, by making it the depository of the paj)ers gen-
erally. I therefore now forward the three volumes of MS. jour-
nals in my possession, and authorize them, under General
Clarke's letters, to inquire for and to receive the rest. So also
the astronomical and geographical papers, those relating to zoo-
logical, botanical, and mineral subjects, with the Indian vocabu-
laries, and statistical tables relative to the Indians. Of the as-
tronomical and geographical papers, if the committee will be so
good as to give me a statement, I will, as soon as a Secretary at
War is appointed, propose to him to have made, at the public
expense, the requisite calculations, to have the map corrected in
its longitudes and latitudes, engraved and published on a proper
scale ; and I will ask from General Clarke the one he offers, with
his corrections. With respect to the zoological and mineralogical
papers and subjects, it would perhaps be agreeable to the Philo-
sophical Society, to have a digest of them made, and published
in their transactions or otherwise. And if it should be within
the views of the historical committee to have the Indian vocab-
ularies digested and published, I would add to them the remains
of my collection. I had through the course of my life availed
myself of every opportunity of procuring vocabularies of the
languages of every tribe which either myself or my friends
could have access to. They amounted to about forty, more or
less perfect. But in th'^ir passage from Washington to this pkce,
the trunk in which they were was stolen and plundered, and
some fragments only of the vocabularies were recovered. Still,.
CORRESPONDENCE, 93
however, they were such as would be worth incorporation with
a larger work, and shall be at the service of the historical com-
mittee, if they can make any use of them. Permit me to request
the return of General Clarke's letter, and to add assurances of
my respect and esteem.
P S. With the volumes of MS. journal, Mrs. Barton delivered
one by mistake I suppose, which seems to have been the journal
of some botanist. I presume it was the property of Dr. Barton,
and therefore forward it to you to be returned to Mrs. Barton.
TO MR. COKREA.
Poplar Forest, November 25, 1817.
Dear Sir, — I am highly gratified by the interest you take in
our Central College, and the more so as it may possibly be-
come an inducement to pass more of your time with us. It is
even said you had thought of engaging a house in its neighbor-
hood. But why another house ? Is not one enough ? and es-
pecially one whose inhabitants are made so happy by your be-
coming their inmate ? When you shall have a wife and family
wishing to be to themselves, then the question of another house
may be taken ad referendum. I wish Dr. Cooper could have
the same partialities. He seems to have misunderstood my last
letter ; in the former I had spoken of opening our Physical School
in the spring of '19, but learning that that delay might render
his engagement uncertain, the visitors determined to force their
preparations so as to receive him by midsummer next, and so my
letter stated. In one I now write, I recall his attention to that
circumstance. But his decision will no doubt be governed by
the result of the proposition, to permit the medical students of
Philadelphia to attend him. I can never regret any circumstance
which may add to his well-being, for I most sincerely wish him
well. That himself and Mrs. Cooper will be happier in the so-
ciety of Philadelphia, cannot be doubted. It would be flattering
94 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
enough to ns to be his second choice. I find from his informa-
tion that we are not to expect to obtain in this country either a
classical or mathematical professor of the first order ; and as our
institution cannot be raised above the common herd of academies,
colleges, (fcc, already scattered over our country, but by super-
eminent professors, we have determined to accept of no medioc-
rity, and to seek in Europe for what is eminent. We shall go
to Edinburgh in preference, because of the advantage to students
of receiving communications in their native tongue, and because
peculiar and personal circumstances will enable us to interest
Dugald Stewart and Professor Leslie, of that College, in procur-
ing us subjects of real worth and eminence. I put off writing to
them for a classical and mathematical professor only until I see
what our legislature, which meets on Monday next, is disposed
to do, either on the question singly of adopting our college for
their university, or on that of entering at once on a general sys-
tem of instruction, for which they have for some time been pre-
paring. For this last purpose I have sketched, and put into the
hands of a member a bill, delineating a practicable plan, entirely
within the means they already have on hand, destined to this object.
My bill proposes, 1. Elementary schools in every county, which
shall place every householder within three miles of a school. 2.
District colleges, which shall place every father within a day's
ride of a college where he may dispose of his son. 3. An uni-
versity in a healthy and central situation, with the offer of the
lands, buildings, and funds of the Central College, if they will
accept that place for their establishment. In the 1st will be
taught reading, writing, common arithmetic, and general notions
of geography. In the 2d, ancient and modern languages,
geography fully, a higher degree of numerical arithmetic, men-
suration, and the elementary principles of navigation. In the
3d, all the useful sciences in their highest degree. To all of
which is added a selection from the elementary schools of sub-
jects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor
to give them further education, to be carried at the public ex-
pense through the colleges and university. The object is tc
CORRESPONDENCE. 95
bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty
in every country, for want of the means of development, and
thus give activity to a mass of mind, which, in proportion to our
population, shall be the double or treble of what it is in most
countries. The expense of the elementary schools for every
county, is proposed to be levied on the wealth of the county, and
all children rich and poor to be educated at these three years
gratis. The expense of the colleges and university, admitting
two professors to each of the former, and ten to the latter, can be
completely and permanently established with a sum of five hun-
dred thousand dollars, in addition to the present funds of our
Central College. Our literary fund has already on hand, and ap-
propriated to these purposes, a sum of seven hundred thousand
dollars, and that increasing yearly. This is in fact and substance
the plan I proposed in a bill forty years ago, but accommodated
to the circumstances of this, instead of that day. I derive my
present hopes that it may now be adopted, from the fact that the
House of Representatives, at their last session, passed a bill, less
practicable and boundlessly expensive, and therefore alone re-
jected by the Senate, and printed for public consideration and
amendment. Mine, after all, may be an Utopian dream, but
being innocent, I have thought I might indulge in it till I go to
the land of dreams, and sleep there with the dreamers of all past
and future times.
I have taken measm-es to obtain the crested turkey, and Avill
endeavor to perpetuate that beautiful and singular characteristic,
and shall be not less earnest in endeavors to raise the Moronnier.
God bless you, and j)reserve you long in life and health, until
wearied with delighting your kindred spirits here, you may wish
to encounter the great problem, untried by the hving, unreported
by the dead.
96 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO ME. DUPONCEAU.
MoNTiCKLio, December. 30, 1817.
Dear Sir, — An absence of six weeks has occasioned joui
letters of the 5th and 11th inst., to lie thus long unacknowl-
edged. After I had sent off the two other Westover MSS. I re-
ceived a third of the same journal. On perusing it I am not sen-
sible by memory, of anything not contained in the former, ex-
cept eight pages of a preliminary account of the abridgment of
our limits by successive charters to other colonies. I suppose
this to be a copy of the largest of the other two, entered fair in
a folio volume, with other documents relating to the government
of Virginia. It is bound in vellum, and, by the arms pasted iu
it, seems to have been mtended for the shelves of the author's
library. As this journal is complete it might enable lis to sup-
ply the hiatuses of the other copies.
I now send you the remains of my Indian vocabularies, some
of which are perfect. I send with them the fragments of my
digest of them, which were gathered up on the banks of the
river where they had been strewed by the plunderers of the
trunk in which they were. These will merely show the arrange-
ment I had given the vocabularies, according to their affinities
and degrees of resemblance or dissimilitude.
If you can recover Capt. Lewis' collection, they will make
an important addition, for there was no part of his instructions
which he executed more fully or carefully, never meeting with
a single Indian of a new tribe, without making his vocabulary
the first object. What Professor Adelung mentions of the Em-
press Catharine's having procured many vocabularies of our In-
dians, is correct. She applied to M. de La Fayette, who, through
the aid of General Washington, obtained several ; but I never
learnt of what particular tribes. The great works of Pallas being
rare, I will mention that there are two editions of it, the one in
two volumes, the other in four volumes 4lo, :.i the library I
ceded to Congress, which may be consulted. But the Professor's
account of the supposed Mexican MS. is quite erroneous, nor cai.
OORRESPOi^DEiilOJ!,. 97
1 conceive through whom he can have receivea lus mlormation.
It has probably been founded on an imperfect knowledge of the
following fact : Soon after the acquisition of Louisiana, Gover-
nor Claiborne foimd, in a private family there, a MS. journal
kept, (I forget by whom,) but by a confidential officer of the
French government, proving exactly by what connivance be-
tween the agents of the compagnie d'occident, and the Span-
iards, these last smuggled settlements into Louisiana, as far as
Assinais, Adais, (fcc, for the purpose of covering the contraband
trade of the company. Claiborne, being afraid to tru&t the origi-
nal by mail, without keeping a copy, sent it on after being copied.
It an-ived safe, and was deposited by me in the office of State.
He then sent me the copy, on the destruction of the office at
Washington by the British ; apprehending the original might be
involved in that destruction, I sent the copy to Colonel Monroe,
then Secretary of State, with a request to return it, if the origi-
nal was safe, and to keep it, if not. I have heard no more of
it. My intention was, and is, if it is returned to me, to deposit
it with your committee for safe keeping or publication. While
on the subject of Louisiana, I have thought I had better commit
to you also an historical memoir of my own respecting the im-
portant question of its limits. When we first made the purchase
we knew little of its extent, having never before been interested
to inquire into it. Possessing, then, in my library, everything
respecting America which I had been able to collect by unre-
mitting researches, during my residence in Europe, particularly
and generally through my life, I availed myself of the leisure of
my succeeding autumnal recess from Washington, to bring togeth-
er everything which my collection furnished on the subject of
its boundary. The result was the memoir I now send you,
copies of which were furnished to our ministers at Paris and Mad-
rid, for their information as to the extent of territory claimed un-
der our purchase. The New Orleans MS. afterwards discovered,
(iirnished some valuable supplementary proofs of title.
I defer writing to the Secretary at War respecting the observa-
tions of longitude and latitude by Capt. Lewis, until I learn from
JE"F¥ERSON'S WORTv'S.
you whetlier tbey are recovered, and whether they are so com-
plete as to be susceptilDle of satisfactory calculation. I salute
you with- great respect and esteem. /
TO MR. Wirt.
' MoNxrcKLLO, January 5, 1818.
I have first to thank you, dear Sir, for the copy of your late
work which you have been so kind as to send me, and then to
render you double congratulations, first, on the general applause
it has so justly received, and next on the public testimony of
esteem for its author, manifested by your late call to the execu-
tive councils of the nation. All this I do heartily, and then pro-
ceed to a case of business on which you will have to advise the
government on the threshold of your office. You have seen the
death of General Kosciusko announced in the papers in such a
way as not to be doubted. He had in the funds of the United
States a very considerable sum of money, on the interest of
which he depended for subsistence. On his leaving the United
States, in 1798, he placed it under my direction by a power of
attorney, which I executed entirely through Mr. Barnes, who
regularly remitted his interest. But he left also in my hands an
autograph will, disposing of his funds in a particular course of
charity, and making me his executor. The question the govern-
ment will ask of you, and which I therefore ask, is in what court
must this will be proved, and my qualification as executor be re-
ceived, to justify the United States in placing these funds under
the trust ? This is to be executed wholly in this State, and will
occupy so long a course of time beyond what I can expect to
live, that I think to propose to place it under the Court of Chan-
cery. The place of probate generally follows the lesidence of
the testator. That was in a foreign country in the present case.
Sometimes the bona notabilia. The evidences or representations
of these (the certificates) are in my hands. The things repre-
sented (the money) in those of the United States. But where
OOERESPONDENOE, 99
are the United States ? Everywhere, I suppose, where they have
government or property Hable to the demand on payment. That
is to say, in every State of the Union, in this, for example, as
well as any other, strengthened by the circumstances of the de-
posit of the will, the residence of the executor, and the place
where the trust is to be executed. In no instance, I believe,
does the mere habitation of the debtor draw to it the place of
probate, and if it did, the United States are omnipresent by their
functionaries, as well as property in every State of the Union. I
am led by these considerations to suppose our district or general
court competent to the object ; but you know best, and by your
advice, sanctioned by the Secretary of the Treasury, I shall act.
I write to the Secretary on this subject. If our district court will
do, I can attend it personally ; if the general court only be com-
petent, I am in hopes it will find means of dispensing with my
personal attendance. I salute you with affectionate esteem and
respect.
TO DR. BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
MoNTiCELLO, March 3, 1818.
Dear Sir, — I have just received your favor of February 20th,
in which you observe that Mr. Wirt, on page 47 of his Life of
Patrick Henry, quotes me as saying that " Mr. Henry certainly
gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." I well recollect
to have used some such expression in a letter to him, and am tol-
erably certain that our own State being the subject under contem-
plation, I must have used it with respect to that only. Whether
he has given it a more general aspect I cannot say, as the pas-
sage is not in the page you quote, nor, after thumbing over much
of the book, have I been able to find it.* In page 417 there is
something like it, but not the exact expression, and even there it
may be doubted whether Mr. Wirt had his eye on Virginia alone,
or on all the colonies. But the question, who commenced tha
revolution ? is as difRcult as that of the first inventors of a thou-
[* It was found page 41.]
LOO JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
sand good things. For example, who first discovered the prin-
ciple of gravity ? Not Newton ; for Galileo, who died the year
that Newton was born, had measured its force in the descent of
gravid bodies. Who invented the Lavoiserian chemistry ? The
English say Dr. Black, by the preparatory discovery of latent
heat. Who mvented the steamboat ? Was it Gerbert, the Mar-
quis of Worcester, Newcomen, Savary, Papin, Pitch, Fulton ?
The fact is, that one new idea leads to another, that to a third,
and so on through a course of time until some one, with whom
no one of these ideas was original, combines all together, and
produces what is justly called a new invention. I suppose it
would be as difficult to trace our revolution to its first embryo.
We do not know how long it was hatching in the British cabinet
before they ventured to make the first of the experiments which
were to develop it in the end and to produce complete parliament-
ary supremacy. Those you mention in Massachusetts as preced-
ing the stamp act, might be the first visible symptoms of that de-
sign. The proposition of that act in 1764, was the first here.
Your opposition, therefore, preceded ours, as occasion was sooner
given there than here, and the truth, I suppose, is, that the oppo-
sition in every colony began whenever the encroachment was
presented to it. This question of priority is as the inquiry would
be who first, of the three hundred Spartans, offered his name to
Leonidas ? I shall be happy to see justice done to the merits of
all, by the unexceptionable umpirage of date and facts, and es-
pecially from the pen which is proposed to he employed in it.
I rejoice, indeed, to learn from you that Mr. Adams retains the
strength of his memory, his faculties, his cheerfulness, and even
his epistolary industry. This last is gone from me. The aver-
sion has been growing on me for a considerable time, and now,
near the close of seventy-five, is become almost insuperable. I
am much debilitated in body, and my memory sensibly on the
wane. Still, however, I enjoy good health and spirits, and am
as industrious a reader as when a student at college. Not of
newspapers. These I have discarded. I relinquish, as I ought
to do, all intermeddling with public affairs, committing myself
COKKESPONDENOE. 101
cheerfully to the watch and care of those for whom, in my turn
T have watched and cared. When I contemplate the immenst
advances in science and discoveries in the arts which have been
made within the period of my life, I look forward with con-
fidence to equal advances by the present generation, and have no
doubt they will consequently be as much wiser than we have
been as we than our fathers were, and they than the burners of
•witches. Even the metaphysical contest, ^vhich you so pleas-
antly described to me in a former letter, will probably end in im-
provement, by clearing the mind of Platonic mysticism and un-
intelligible jargon. Although age is taking from me the power
of communicating by letter with my friends as industriously as
heretofore, I shall still claim with them the same place they wil'
ever hold iiT my affections, and on this ground I, with sincerity
and pleasure, assm-e you of my great esteem and respect.
TO N. BURWELL, ESQ.
MoNTiCELLO, March 14, 1818.
Dear Sib, — Your letter of February 17th found me suffering
under an attack of rheumatism, which has but now left me at
sufficient ease to attend to the letters I have received. A plan
of female education has never been a subject of systematic con-
templation with me. It has occupied my attention so far only as
the education of my own daughters occasionally required. Con-
sidering that they would be placed in a country situation, where
little aid could be obtained from abroad, I thought it essential tc
give them a solid education, which might enable them, when be-
come mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to di-
rect the course for sons, should their fathers be lost, or incapable,
or inattentive. My surviving daughter accordingly, the mother
of many daughters as well as sons, has made their education the
object of her life, and being a better judge of the practical part
than myself, it is with her aid and that of one of her eleves, that
102 JEFFEPw SON'S WORKS.
I shall subjoin a catalogue of the boolis for such a course of read-
ing as we have practiced.
A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion
prevalent for novels, and the time lost in that reading which
should be instructively employed. When this poison infects the
mind, it destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome read-
ing. Reason and fact, plain and unadorned, are rejected. No-
thing can engage attention unless dressed in all the figments of
fancy, and nothing so bedecked comes amiss. The result is a
bloated imagination, sickly judgment, and disgust towards all
the real businesses of life. This mass of trash, however, is not
Nvithout some distinction ; some few modelling their narratives,
although fictitious, on the incidents of real life, have been able
to make them interesting and useful vehicles of a sound morality.
Such, I think, are Marmontel's new moral tales, but not his old
ones, which are really immoral. Such are the writings of Miss
Edge worth, and some of those of Madame Genlis. For a like
reason, too, much poetry should not be indulged. Some is useful
for forming style and taste. Pope, Dryden, Thompson, Shaks-
peare, and of the French, Moliere, Racine, the Corneilles, may
be read with pleasure and improvement.
The French language, become that of the general intercourse
of nations, and from their extraordinary advances, now the de-
pository of all science, is an indispensable part of education for
both sexes. In the subjoined catalogue, therefore, I have placed
the books of both languages indifferently, according as the one
or the other offers what is best.
The ornaments too, and the amusements of life, are entitled
to their portion of attention. These, for a female, are dancing,
drawing, and music. The first is a healthy exercise, elegant and
very attractive for young people. Every affectionate parent
would be pleased to see his daughter qualified to participate with
her companions, and without awkwardness at least, in the circles
of festivity, of which she occasionally becomes a part. I<: is a
necessary accomplishment, therefore, although of short i,ie , for
the French rule is wise, that no lady dances after marriage. This
CORRESPONDENCE. 103
is founded in solid physical reasons, gestation and nursing leav-
ing little time to a married lady when this exercise can be either
safe or innocent. Drawing is thought less of in this country
tlian in Europe. It is an innocent and engaging amusement,
often useful, and a qualification not to be neglected in one who
is to become a mother and an instructor. Music is invaluable
where a person has an ear. Where the^^ have not, it should not
be attempted. It furnishes a delightful recreation for the hours
of respite from the cares of the day, and lasts us through life.
The taste of this country, too, calls for this accomplishment more
strongly than for either of the others.
I need say nothing of household economy, in which the
mothers of our country are "generally skilled, and generally care-
ful to instruct their daughters. We all know its value, and that
diligence and dexterity in all its processes are inestimable treas-
ures. The order and economy of a house are as honorable to the
mistress as those of the farm to the master, and if either be neg-
lected, ruin follows, and children destitute of the means of living.
This, Sir, is oflFered as a summary sketch on a subject on which
I have not thought much. It probably contains nothing but
what has already occurred to yourself, and claims your accept-
ance on no other groimd than as a testimony of my respect for
yom- wishes, and of my great esteem and respect
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoxTicELL", Mnv 17, ISIS.
De.vb Sir, — I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mi-.
Holly's own hand 3^0 ur favor of January the 2Sth, being then at
my other home. He dined only with my family, and left them
with an impression which has filled me with regret that I did not
partake of the pleasure his visit gave them. I am glad he is gone
to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more rapidly
there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are,
and bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though
104 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
neither you nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary
people to them. Our greediness for wealth, and fantastical ex-
pense, have degraded, and will degrade, the minds of our mari-
time citizens. These are the peculiar vices of commerce.
I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of
you through a letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to re-
claim against an expression of Mr. Wirt's, as to the commence-
ment of motion in the revolutionary ball. The lawyers say that
words are always to be expounded secunduin suhjectam materiem,
which, in Mr. Wirt's case, was Virginia. It would, moreover, be
as difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began, and
what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the em-
bryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning.
But the most agreeable part of his letter was that which informed
me of your health, your activity, and strength of memory ; and
the most wonderful, that which assured me that you retained
your industry and promptness in epistolary correspondence.
Here you have entire advantage over me. My repugnance to
the writing table becomes daily and hourly more deadly and in-
surmountable. In place of this has come on a canine appetite
for reading. And I indulge it, because I see in it a relief against
the tcedium seneciutis ; a lamp to lighten my path througti the
dreary wilderness of time before me, whose boiu'ne I see not.
Losing daily all interest in the things around us, something else
is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which occu-
pies the mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own
stock.
I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of
South America. They will succeed against Spain. But the
dangerous enemy is within their own breasts. Ignorance and su-
perstition will chain their minds and bodies under religious and
military despotism. I do believe it would be better for tliem to
obtain freedom by degrees only ; because that would by degrees
bring on light and information, and qualify them to take charge
of themselves understandingly ; with more certainty, if in the
meantime, under so much control as may keep them at peace
COREESPOSDENCE. 105
with one another. Surely, it is our duty to wish them indepen-
dence and self-government, because they wish it themselves,
and they have the right, and we none, to choose for themselves ,
and I wish, moreover, that our ideas may be erroneous, and theirs
prove well founded. But these are speculations, my friend, which
we may as well deliver over to those who are to see their de-
velopment. We shall only be lookers on, from the clouds
above, as now we look down on the labors, the hurry and bustle
of the ants and bees. Perhaps in that super-mundane region, we
may be amused with seeing the fallacy of our own guesses, and
even the nothingness of those labors which have filled and agi-
tated our own time here.
En atte7idant, with sincere' affections to Mrs. Adams and your-
self, I salute you both cordially.
TO M. JULLIEN.
MoNTiCELLo, July 23, 1818.
Sir, — Your favor of March 30th, 1817, came to my hands on
the 1st of March, 1818. While the statement it contained of the
many instances of your attention in sending to me your diiierent
writings was truly flattering, it Avas equally mortifying to per-
ceive that two only of the eight it enumerates, had ever come
to my hands ; and that both of my acknowledgments of these
had miscarried also. Your first favor of November 5th, 1809,
was received by me on the 6th of May, 1810, and was an-
swered on the 15th of July of the same year, with an acknowl-
edgment of the receipt of your '' Essai general d^ education phys-
ique morale, et iiitellectuelle" and of the high sense I entertained
of its utility. I do not recollect through what channel I sent
this answer, but have little doubt that it was through the office
of our Secretary of State, and our minister then at the court of
France.
In a letter from Mr. E. I. Dupont of August 11, 1817, I re-
ceived the favor of your " Esquisse d'un ouvrage sur I'educa-
106 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
tioji comparee," which he said had been received by his fathej
a few days before his death ; and on the 9th of September, 1817,
I answered his letter, in which was the following paragrapn :
"I duly received tho pamphlet of M. Jullien on Education, to
whom I had been indebted some years before for a valuable work
on the same subject. Of this I expressed to him my high esti-
mation in a letter of thanks, which I trust he received. The
present pamphlet is an additional proof of his useful assiduities
on this interesting subject, which, if the condition of man is to
be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, is
to be the chief instrument in effecting it." I hoped that Mr. E.
I. Dupont, in acknowledging to you the receipt of your letter to
his father, would be the channel of conveying to you my thanks,
as he was to me of the work for which they were rendered.
Be assured. Sir, that not another scrip, either written or printed,
ever came to me from you ; and that I was incapable of omitting
the acknowledgments they called for, and of the neglect which
you have had so much reason to impute to me. I know well
the uncertainty of transmissions across the Atlantic, but never
before experienced such a train of them as has taken place in
your favors and my acknowledgments of them. You will per-
ceive that the letter I am now answering was eleven months on
its passage to me.
The distance between the scenes of action of General Kos-
ciusko and myself, during our revolutionary war, — his in the
military, mine in the civil department, — was such, that I could
give no particulars of the part he acted in that war. But im-
mediately on the receipt of your letter, I wrote to General Arm-
strong, who had been his companion in arms, and an aid to Gen-
eral Gates, with whom General Kosciusko mostly seiwed, and
requested him to give me all the details within his knowledge ;
informing him for whom, and for what purpose they were asked.
I received, two days ago only, the paper of which the enclosed
is a copy, and copied by myself, because the original is in such a
liandwritiug as I am confident no foreigner could ever decypher.
However heavily pressed by the hand of age, and unequal to the
OOEEESPONDENOE. 107
duties of punctual correspondence, of which my friends generallj'
would have a right to complain, if the cause depended on myself,
I am happy to find that in that with yourself there has been no
ground of reproach. Least of all things could I have omitted
any researches within my power which might do justice to the
memory of General Kosciusko, the brave auxiliary of my country
in its struggle for liberty, and, from the year 1797, when our
particular acquaintance began, my most intimate and much be-
loved friend. On his last departure from the United States in
1798, he left in my hands an instrument appropriating after his
death all the property he had in our public funds, the price of
his military services here, to the education and emancipation of
as many of the children of bondage in this country as it sliould
be adequate to. I am now too old to undertake a business de si
longue halcine ; but I am taking measures to place it in such
hands as will ensure a faithful discharge of the philanthropic in-
tentions of the donor. I learn with pleasure your continued ef-
forts for the instruction of the future generations of men, and, be-
lieving it the only means of effectuating their rights, I wish them
all possible success, and to yourself the eternal gratitude of those
who will feel their benefits, and beg leave to add the assm-ance
of my high esteem and respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
?Iontk:ki.lo, November 13, 1818.
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event
of which your letter of October the 20th had given me ominous
foreboding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss
of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I
Know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered,
are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have
taught me that for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the
only medicine. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences,
open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sin-
108 JEFfEESON'S WORKS.
ceiely my tears with yours, will I say a word more where words
are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term
is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cere-
ment, our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence
to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost,
and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless
you and support you under your heavy affliction.
TO EOBEKT WALSH.
MoNTiOKLi.o, December 4, 1818.
Deae Sir, — Yours of November the 8th has been some time
received ; but it is in my power to give little satisfaction as to its
inquiries. Dr. Franklin had many political enemies, as every
character must, which, with decision enough to have opinions,
has energy and talent to give them effect on the feelings of the
adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in Pennsylvania
and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of the pro-
prietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities,
which spreading by little and little, became at length of some
extent. Dr. Lee was his principal calumniator, a man of much
malignity, who, besides enlisting his whole family in the same
hostility, was enabled, as the agent of Massachusetts with the
British government, to infuse it into that State with considera-
ble effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor's enemy also, but from a pe-
cuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges against
him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also, ever
maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That
he would have waived the formal recognition of our indepen-
dence, I never heard on any authority worthy notice. As to the
fisheries England was urgent to retain them exclusively, France
neutral, and I believe, that had they been ultimately made a
sine qu > no7i, our commissioners (Mr. Adams excepted) would
hav(; relinquished them, rather than have broken off the treaty.
CORRESPONDENCE. 109
To Mr. Adams' perseverance alone, on that point, I have always
understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the
charge of subservience to France, besides the evidence of his
friendly colleagues before named, two years of my own service
with him at Paris, daily visits, and the most friendly and confi-
dential conversation, convince me it had not a shadow of foun-
dation. He possessed the confidence of that government in the
highest degree, insomuch, that it may truly be said, that they
were more under his influence, than he under theirs. The fact
is, that his temper was so amiable and conciliatory, his conduct
so rational, never urging impossibilities, or even things unreason-
ably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate and attentive to
their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his enemies called
subserviency, I saw was only that reasonable disposition, which,
sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding
what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality
and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual in-
fluence, and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin
and the government of France.
I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own
knowledge, too much in detail for the scale of Delaplaine's work,
but which may find a cadre in some of the more particular views
you contemplate. My health is in a great measure restored, and
our family join with me in afl'ectionate recollections and assur-
ances of respect.
TO M. DE KEUVILLE.
MoxTict-LLO, December 13, 1818.
I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your let-
ters favor me, of the liberation of France from the occupation
of the allied powers. To no one, not a native, will it give more
pleasure. In the desolation of Europe, to gratify the atrocious
caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned much ; but she has sufi"er-
ed more than retaliation. Once relieved from the incubus of her
110 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
late oppression, she will rise like a giant from her slumbers. Hei
soil and climate, her arts and eminent sciences, her central posi-
tion and free constitution, will soon make her greater than she
ever was. And I am a false prophet, if she does not at some fu-
ture dsLj, remind of her sufferings those who have inflicted them
the most eagerly. I hope, however, she will be quiet for the
present, and risk no new troubles. Her constitution, as now
amended, gives as much of self-government as perhaps she can
yet bear, and will give more, when the habits of order shall have
prepared her to receive more. Besides the gratitude which every
American owes her, as our sole ally during the war of indepen-
dence, I am additionally affectioned by the friendships I contract-
ed there, by the good dispositions I witnessed, and by the courte-
sies I received.
I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the
duties on wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view
a tax on that liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibi-
tion of its use to the middling class of our citizens, and a con-
demnation of them to the poison of whiskey, which is desolating
their houses. No nation is drunken where wine is cheap ; and
none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits
as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote to the
bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of other mer-
chandise, and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog ;
and who will not prefer it ? Its extended use will carry health
and comfort to a much enlarged circle. Every one in easy cir-
cumstances (as the bulk of our citizens are) will prefer it to the
poison to which they are now driven by their government. And
the treasury itself will find that a penny a piece from a dozen, is
more than a groat from a single one. This reformation, how-
ever, will require time. Our merchants know nothing of the in-
finite variety of cheap and good wines to be had in Europe ;
and particularly in France, in Italy, and the Graecian islands ; as
they know little also, of the variety of excellent manufacture's
and comforts to be had anywhere out of England. Nor will
these things be known, nor of course called for here, until the
CORRESPONDENCE. HI
native merchants of those countries, to whom they are known,
shall bring them forward, exhibit and vend them at the moderate
profits they can afford. This alone will procure them familiarity
with us, and the preference they merit in competition with corre-
sponding articles now in use .
Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your
kind visit to Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assur-
ances of the gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem
and respectful consideration.
TO NATHANIEL MACON, ESq.
iloxTicKLi.o, January 12, 1819.
Deab Sib, — The problem you had wished to propose to me
Vv'as one which I could not have solved ; for I knew nothing of
the facts. I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that
chiefly the advertisments, for they contain the only truths to be
relied on in a newspaper. -I feel a much greater interest in know-
mg wiiat has passed two or three thousand years ago, than in
what is now passing. I read nothing, therefore, but of the heroes
of Troy, of the wars of Lacedasmon and Athens, of Pompey and
Cajsar, and of Augustus too, the Bonaparte and parricide scoun-
drel of that day. I have had, and still have, such entire confi-
dence in the late and present Presidents, that I willingly put both
soul and body into their pockets. While such men as yourself
and your worthy colleagues of the legislature, and such characters
as compose the executive administration, are watching for us all,
I slumber without fear, and review in my dreams the visions of
antiquity. There is, indeed, one evil which awakens me at
times, becaust it jostles me at every tm-n. It is that we have
now no measure of value. I am asked eighteen dollars for a
yard of broadcloth, which, when we had dollars, I used to get
for eighteen shillings ; from this I can only understand that a dol-
lar is now worth fiut two inches of broadcloth, but broadcloth
is no standard of measure or value. I do not know, therefore,
112 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
whereabouts I stand in the scale of property, nor what to ask, or
what tQ give for it. I saw, indeed, the like machinery in action
in the years '80 and '81, and without dissatisfaction ; because in
wearing out, it was working out our salvation. But I see no-
thing in this renewal of the game of " Robin's alive" but a gene-
ral demoralization of the nation, a filching from industry its hon-
est earnings, wherewith to build up palaces, and raise gambling
stock for swindlers and shavers, who are to close too their career
of piracies by Iraudulent bankruptcies. My dependence for a
remedy, however, is with the wisdom which grows with time and
suffering. Whether the succeeding generation is to be more vir-
tuous than their predecessors, I cannot say ; but I am sure they
will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know
that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. I have
made a great exertion to write you thus much ; my antipathy to
taking up a pen being so intense that I have never given you a
stronger proof, than in the effort of writing a letter, how much I
value you, and of the superlative respect and friendship with
which I salute you.
TO MB. ADAMS.
MuNTiCKLi.o, Marcli 21, 1819.
Dear Sm, — I am indebted to you for Mr. Bowditch's very
learned mathematical papers, the calculations of which are not
for every reader, although their results are readily enough under-
stood. One of these impairs the confidence I had reposed in La
Place's demonstration, that the eccentricities of the planets of our
system could oscillate only within narrow limits, and therefore
could authorize no inference that the system must, by its own
laws, come one day to an end. This would have left the ques-
tion one of infinitude, at both ends of the line of time, clear of
physical authority.
Mr. Pickering's pamphlet on the pronunciation of the Greek,
for which I am indebted to you also, I have read with great
pleasure. Early in life, the idea occurred to me that the people
CORRESPONDENCE. 113
now inhabiting the ancient seats of the Greeks and Romans,
although their languages in the intermediate ages had suffered
great changes, and especially in the declension of their nouns,
and in the terminations of their words generally, yet having pre-
served the body of the word radically the same, so they would
preserve more of its pronunciation. That at least it was prob-
able that a pronunciation, handed down by tradition, would re-
tain , as the words themselves do, more of the original than that
of any other people whose language has no affinity to that origi-
nal. For this reason I learnt, and have used the Italian pronun-
ciation of the Latin. But that of the modern Greeks I had no
opportunity of learning until I went to Paris. There I became
acquainted with two learned Greeks, Count Carberri and Mr.
Paradise, and with a lady, a native Greek, the daughter of Baron
de Tott, who did not understand the ancient language. Carberri
and Paradise spoke it. From these instructors I learnt the mod-
ern pronunciation, and in general trusted to its orthodoxy. I say,
in general, because sound being more fugitive than the written
letter, we must, after such a lapse of time, presume in it some de-
generacies, as we see there are in the written words. We may
not, indeed, be able to put our finger on them confidently, yet
neither are they entirely beyond the reach of all indication. For
example, in a language so remarkable for the euphony of its
sounds, if that euphony is preserved in particular combinations
of its letters, by an adherence to the powers ordinarily ascribed
to them, and is destroyed by a change of these powers, and the
sound of the word thereby rendered harsh, inharrnonious, and
inidiomatical, here we may presume some degeneracy has taken
place. While, therefore, I gave in to the modern pronunciation
generally, I have presumed, as au instance of degeneracy, their
ascribing the same sound to the six letters, or combinations of
letters, e, », u, ei, oi, ut, to all of which they give the sound of
our double e in the word meet. This useless equivalence of
three vowels and three diphthongs, did not probably exist among
the ancient Greeks ; and the less probably as, while this single
sound, ee, is overcharged by so many different representative
VOL. v. S
114 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
characters, the sounds we usually give to these characters and
combinations would be left without any representative signs.
This would imply either that they had not these sounds in their
language, or no signs for their expression. Probability appears
to me, therefore, against the practice of the modern Greeks of
giving the same sound to all these different representatives, and
to be in favor of that of foreign nations, who, adopting the
Roman characters, have assimilated to them, in a considerable
degree, the powers of the corresponding Greek letters. I have,
accordingly, excepted this in my adoption, of the modern pronun-
ciation. I have been more doubtful in the use of the uv, ev, t;.,
wi', sounding the ., upsilon, as our /or v, because I find traces of
that power of v, or of u, in some modern languages. To go no
further than our own, we have it in laugh, cough, trough, enough.
The county of Louisa, adjacent to that in which I live, was,
when I was a boy, universally pronounced Lovisa. That it is
not the gh which gives the sound of / or v, in these words, is
proved by the orthography oi plough, ti'ough, thought, fraught,
caught. The modern Greeks themselves, too, giving up o, up-
silon, in ordinary, the sound of our ee, strengthens the presump-
tion that its anomalous sound of / or v, is a corruption. The
same may be inferred from the cacophony of tluqu't (elavnej for
thtvvf, (elawne,) .-/xdli-cfg (Achillefs) for J/jlleig, (Achilleise,)
f(f; (eves) for fi;,, (eeuse,) oqx (ovk) for yx, (ouk,) uKfio^ (ovetos)
for ixivioc, (o-u-tos,) 2>(jrs (zevs) for Shvg, (zese,) of which all nations
have made their Jupiter ; and the uselessness of the v in evq.ufut,
which would otherwise have been spelt tcpoi^io. I therefore except
this also from what I consider as approvable pronunciation.
Against reading Greek by accent, instead of quantity, as Mr
Ciceitira proposes, I raise both my hands. What becomes of the
sublime measure of Homer, the full sounding rhythm of Demos-
thenes, if, abandoning quantity, you chop it up by accent ? What
ear can hesitate in its choice between the two following rythms ?
" Tdv, 6'aiTa/j.et6d/ievoc: ^pogefT) ■KO&a^ anvg A;i;iAAet)f,
and,
Tov d'a-rr/iei6o/ievdi npoietj)!) noSa; ux^i Xx'tMirvf,"
COEKESPOXDEXCE. 115
the latter noted according to prosody, the former by accent, ind
dislocating our teeth in its utterance : every syllable of it, except
the first and last, being pronounced against quantity And what
becomes of the art of prosody ? Is that perfect coincidence of
its rules vvith the structure of their verse, merely accidental ' or
was it of design, and yet for no use.
On the whole, I rejoice that this subject is taken up among
us, and that it is in. so able hands as those of it. Pickering.
Should he ultimately establish the modern pronunciation of the
letters without any exception, I shall think it a great step gained,
and giving up my exceptions, shall willingly raUy to him ; and
as he has promised us another paper on the question whether we
shall read by quantity or by accent, I can confidently' trust it to the
correctness of his learning and judgment. Of the origin of ac-
centuation, I have never seen satisfactory proofs. But I have
generally supposed the accents were intended to direct the in-
flections and modulations of the voice ; but not to affect the
quantity of the syllables. You did not expect, I am sure, to
draw on yourself so long a disquisition on letters and sounds, nor
did I intend it, but the subject run before me, and yet I have
dropped much of it by the way.
I am dehghted with youi high approbation of ]\Ir. Tracy's
book. The evils of this deluge of paper money are not to be re-
moved, until our citizens are generally and radically instructed
in their cause and consequences, and silence by their authority
the interested clamors and sophistry of speculating, shaving, and
banking institutions. Till then we must be content to return,
quoad hoc, to the savage state, to recur to barter in the exchange
of our property, for want of a stable, common measure of value,
that now in use being less fixed than the beads and wampum of
the Indian, and to dehver up our citizens, their property and their
labor, passive victims to the swindling tricks of bankers and
mountebankers. If I had your permission to put your letter into
the hands of the editor, (ililUgan,) with or without any verbal alter-
ations 5'ou might choose, it would ensure the general circulation,
which my prospectus and prefatory letter will less effectually rec-
116 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
ommend. There is nothing in the book of mine but these two
articles, and the note on taxation in page 202. ' I never knew
who the translator was ; but I thought him some one who under-
stood neither French nor English ; and probably a Caledonian, ,
from the number of Scotticisms I found in his MS. The in-
numerable corrections in that, cost me more labor than would
have done a translation of the whole de novo ; and made at last
but an inelegant although faithful version of the sense of the
author. Dios guarde a V. S. muchos anos.
TO DOCTOR VINE UTLET.
Monti CELLO, March 21, 1819
Sir, — ^Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the
1st instant ; and the request of the history of my physical habits
would have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model
with which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a
similar inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might
refer to ordinary life as the history of my own. Like my friend
the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food,
and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vege-
tables, which constitute my principal diet. I double, however,
the Doctor's glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a
friend ; but halve its effects by drinking the weak wines only.
The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in
any form. Malt liquors and cider are my table drinks, and my
breakfast, like that also of my friend, is of tea and coffee. I
have been blest with organs of digestion which accept and con-
coct, "Without ever murmuring, whatever the palate chooses to
consign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth by age. I was
a hard student until I entered on the business of life, the duties
of which leave no idle time to those disposed to fulfil them ; and
now, retired, and at the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard
student. Indeed, my fondness for reading and study revolts me
from the drudgery of letter writing. And a stiff wrist, the con-
CORRESPONDENCE. 117
sequence ot an early dislocation, makes writing both slow and
nainful. I am not so regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he
was, devoting to it from five to eight hours, according as m^'
company or the book I am reading interests me ; and I never go
to bed without an hour, or half hour's previous reading of some-
thing moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep. But
whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun. I use
spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the day, unless in read-
ing small print. My hearing is distinct in particular conversa-
tion, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortu-
nate than my friend in the article of health. So free from
catarrhs that I have not had one, (in the breast, I mean) on an
average of eight or ten years through life. I ascribe this ex-
emption partly to the habit of bathing my feet in cold water
every morning, for sixty years past. A fever of more than twen-
ty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my life.
A periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, per-
haps, in six or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time,
which seems now to have left me ; and except on a late occa-
sion of indisposition, I enjoy good health ; too feeble, indeed, to
walk much, but riding without fatigue six or eight miles a day,
and sometimes thirty or forty. I may end these egotisms, there-
fore, as I began, by saying that my life has been so much like
that of other people, that 1 might say with Horace, to every one
" nomine miitato, narratur fahula de te." I must not end, how-
ever, without due thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you
are so good as to express towards myself: and with my acknowl-
edgments for these, be pleased to accept the assurances of my
respect and esteem.
TU MR. SPATFORD.
MoNiicELLO, May 11, 1819.
Dear Sir, — The interest on the late derangement of my health
which was so kindly expressed by many, could not but be grati-
118 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
fying to me, as much as it manifested a sentiment that I had not
been merely an useless cypher of society. Yet a decline of health
at the age of 76, was naturally to be expected, and is a warning
of an event which cannot be distant, and whose approach I con-
template with little concern ; for indeed, in no circumstance has
nature been kinder to us, than in the soft gradations by which
she prepares us to part willingly with what we are not destined
always to retain. First one faculty is withdrawn and then an-
other, sight, hearing, memory, affections, and friends, filched one
by one, till we are left among strangers, the mere monuments of
times, facts, and specimens of antiquity for the observation of the
curious.
To your request of materials for writing my life, I know not
what to say, although I have been obliged to say something to
several preceding applications of the same kind. One answer in-
deed is obviouS; that I am by decay of memory, aversion to la-
bor, and cares more suited to my situation, unequal to such a
task. Of the public transactions in which I have borne a part, I
have kept no narrative with a view of history. A life of con-
stant action leaves no time for recording. Always thinking of
what is next to be done, what has been done is dismissed, and
soon obliterated from the memory. I cannot be insensible to the
partiality which has induced several persons to think my life
worthy of remembrance. And towards none more than yourself,
who give me so much credit more than I am entitled to, as to
what has been effected for the safeguard of our republican con-
stitution. Numerous and able coadjutors have participated in
these efforts, and merit equal notice. My life, in fact, has been
so much like that of others, that their history is my history, with
a mere difference of feature. The only valuable materials for
history which I possessed, were the pamphlets of the day, care-
fully collected and preserved ; but these past on to Congress with
my library, and are to be found in their depository. Except the
Notes on Virginia, I never wrote anything but acts of office, of
which I rarely kept a copy. These will all be found in the
journals and gazettes of the times. There was a book published
CORRESPONDENCE. 119
in England about 1801, or soon after, entitled "Public Charac-
ters," in which was given a sketch of my nistory to that period.
I never knew, nor could conjecture by whom this was written ;
but certainly by some one pretty intimately acquainted with my-
self and my connections. There were a few inconsiderable
errors in it, but in general it was correct. Delaplaine, in his Re-
pository, has also given some outlines on the same subject ; he
sets out indeed with an error as to the county of my birth.
Chesterfield, which he states as such, was the residence of my
grandfather and remoter ancestors, but Albemarle was that of
my father, and of my own birth and residence. Excepting this
error, I remark no other but in his ascriptions of more merit than
I have deserved. Girardin's History of Virginia, too, gives many
particulars on the same subject, which are correct. These pub-
lications furnish all the details of facts and dates which can in-
terest anybody, and more than I could now furnish myself from
a decayed memory, or any notes I retain. While, therefore, I
feel just acknowledgments for the partial selection of a subject
for your employment, I am persuaded you will perceive there is
too little new and worthy of public notice to devote to it a time
which may be so much more usefully employed ; and with a due
sense of the partiality of your friendship, I salute you with assur-
ances of the greatest esteem and respect.
TO S. A. WELLS, ESQ.
MoNTicELLO, May 12, 1819.
SiE, — An absence of some time at an occasional and distant
residence must apologize for the delay in acknowledging the re-
ceipt of your favor of April 12th. And candor obliges me to add
that it has been somewhat extended by an aversion to writing,
,as well as to calls on my memory for facts so much obliterated
from it by time as to lessen my confidence in the traces which
seem to remain. One of the inquiries in your letter, however,
may be answered without an apjieal to the memory. It is that
120 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
respecting the question whether committees of correspondence
originated in Virginia or Massachusetts ? On which you suppose
me to have claimed it for Virginia. But certainly I have never
made such a claim. The idea, I suppose, has been taken up
from what is said in Wirt's history of Mr. Henry, p. 87, and from
an inexact attention to its precise terms. It is there said " this
house [of burgesses of Virginia] had the merit of originating that
powerful engine of resistance, corresponding committees between
the legislatures of the different colonies." That the fact as here
expressed is true, your letter bears witness when it says that
the resolutions of Virginia for this purpose were transmitted
to the speakers of the different Assemblies, and by that of Massa-
chusetts was laid at the next session before that body, who ap-
pointed a committee for the specified object : adding, " thus in
Massachusetts there were two committees of correspondence, one
chosen by the people, the other appointed by the House of As-
sembly ; in the former, Massachusetts preceded Virginia ; in the
latter, Virginia preceded Massachusetts." To the origination of
committees for the interior correspondence between the counties
and towns of a State, I know of no claim on the part of Virginia ;
but certainly none was ever made by myself. I perceive, how-
ever, one error into which memory had led me. Our committee
for national correspondence was appointed in March, '73, and I
well remember that going to Williamsburg in the month of June
following, Peyton Randolph, om- chairman, told me that mes-
sengers, bearing despatches between the two States, had crossed
each other by the way ; that of Virginia carrying our propositions
for a committee of national correspondence, and that of Massa-
chusetts bringing, as my memory suggested, a similar proposi-
tion. But here I must have misremembered ; and the resolutions
brought us from Massachusetts were probably those you mention
of the town meeting of Boston, on the motion of Mr. Samuel
Adams, appointing a committee " to state the rights of the colo-
nists, and of that province in particular, and the infringements
of them, to communicate them to the several towns, as the sense
of the town of Boston, and to request of each town a free com-
COREESPONDENOE. 121
munication of its sentiments on this subject" ? I suppose, there-
fore, that these resohitions were not received, as you think, while
the House of Burgesses was in session in March, 1773 ; but a fev.
days after we rose, and were probably what was sent by the
messenger who crossed ours by the way. They may, however,
have been still different. I must therefore have been mistaken in
supposing and stating to Mr. Wirt, that the proposition of a com-
mittee for national correspondence was nearly simultaneous in
Virginia and Massachusetts.
A similar misapprehension of another passage in Mr. Wirt's
book, for which I am also quoted, has produced a similar reclam-
ation of the part of Massachusetts by some of her most distin-
guished and estimable citizens. I had been applied to by Mr.
Wirt for such facts respecting Mr. Henry, as my intimacy with
him, and participation in the transactions of the day, might have
placed within my knowledge. I accordingly committed them
to paper, and Virginia being the theatre of his action, was the
only subject within my contemplation, while speaking of him.
Of the resolutions and measures here, in which he had the ac-
knowledged lead, I used the expression that " Mr. Henry certainly
gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." [Wirt, p. 41.]
The expression is indeed general, and in all its extension would
comprehend all the sister States. But indulgent construction
would restrain it, as was really meant, to the subject matter un-
der contemplation, which was Virginia alone ; according to the
rule of the lawyers, and a fair canon of general criticism, that
every expression should be construed secundum suhjectam mate-
riem. Vv'here the first attack was made, there must have been
of course, the first act of resistance, and that was of Massachu-
setts. Our first overt act of war was Mr. Henry's embodying a
force of militia from several counties, regularly armed and organ-
ized, marching them in military array, and making reprisal on
the King's treasury at the seat of government for the public
powder taken away by his Goveriaor. This was on the last days
of April, 1775. Your formal battle of Lexington was ten or
twelve days before that, which greatly overshadowed in import-
122 JEFFEESON'S WOEKS.
ance, as it preceded in time our little affray, which merely amount-
ed to a levying of arms against the King, and very possibly you
had had military affrays before the regular battle of Lexington.
These explanations will, I hope, assure you. Sir, that so far as
cither facts or opinions have been truly quoted from me^ they
have never been meant to intercept the just fame of Massachu-
setts, for the promptitude and perseverance of her early resist-
ance. We willingly cede to her the laud of having been (al-
though not exclusively) " the cradle of sound principles," and
if some of us believe she has deflected from them in her course,
we retain full confidence in her ultimate return to them.
I will now proceed to your quotation from Mr. Galloway's
statements of what passed in Congress on their declaration of
independence, in which statement there is not one word of truth,
and where, bearing some resemblance to truth, it is an entire per-
version of it. I do not charge this on Mr. Galloway himself ;
his desertion having taken place long before these measures, be
doubtless received his information from some of the loyal friends
whom he left behind him. But as yourself, as well as others,
appear embarrassed by inconsistent accounts of the proceedings
on that memorable occasion, and as those who have endeavored
to restore the truth have themselves committed some errors, I
will give you some extracts from a written document on that
subject, for the truth of which I pledge myself to heaven and
earth ; having, while the question of independence was under
consideration before Congress, taken written notes, in my seat,
of what was passing, and reduced them to form on the final con-
clusion. I have now before me that paper, from which the fol-
lowing are extracts :
"■' On Friday the 7th of June, 1776, the delegates from Vir-
ginia moved, in obedience to instructions from their constituents,
that the Congress should declare that these united colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all po-
litical connection between them and the State of Great Britain
IS, and ought to he totally dissolved ; that measures should be
CORRESPONDENCE. 123
immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers,
and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely
together. The house being obliged to attend at that time to
some other business, the proposition was referred to the next day,
when the members were ordered to attend punctually at ten
o'clock. Saturday, June 8th, they proceeded to take it into con-
sideration, and referred it to a committee of the whole, into
which they immediately resolved themselves, and passed that
day and Monday the 10th in debating on the subject.
" It appearing in the course of these debates, that the colonies
of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
and South Carolina were not yet matured for falling from the
parent stem, but that they were fast advancing to that state, it
was thought most prudent to wait awhile for them, and to post-
pone the final decision to July 1st. But that this might occasion
as little delay as possible, a committee was appointed to prepare
a Declaration of Independence. The committee were J. Adams,
Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston and mj^self.
This was reported to the House on Friday the 28th of June,
when it was read and ordered to lie on the table. On Monday
the 1st of July the House resolved itself into a committee of the
whole, and resumed the consideration of the original motion
made by the delegates of Virginia, which being again debated
through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New
Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. South
Carolina and Pensylvania voted against it. Delaware having but
two members present, they were divided. The delegates for
New York declared they were for it themselves, and were as-
sured their constituents were for it ; but that their instructions
having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when reconcilia-
tion was still the general object, they were enjoined by them to
do nothing which should impede that object. They therefore
thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and
asked leave to withdraw from the question, which was given
them. The Committee rose and reported their resolution to the
124 JEFFEESOK'S WORKS.
House. Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, then requested the
determination might be put off to the next day, as he beheved
his colleagues, though they disapproved of the resolution, would
then join in it for the sake of unanimity. The ultimate ques-
tion whether the House would agree to the resolution of the
committee was accordingly postponed to the next day, when it
was again moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for it ;
in the meantime a third member had come post from the Dela-
ware counties, and turned the vote of that colony in favor of the
resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that
morning from Pennsylvania also, their vote was changed ; so
that the whole twelve colonies, who were authorized to vote at
all, gave their votes for it ; and within a few days, [July 9th,]
the convention of New York approved of it, and thus supplied
the void occasioned by the withdrawing of their delegates from
the vote." [Be careful to observe that this vacillation and vote
was on the original motion of the 7th of June by the Virginia
delegates, that Congress should declare the colonies independent.]
" Congress proceeded the same day to consider the Declaration
of Independence, which has been reported and laid on the table
the Friday preceding, and on Monday referred to a committee
of the whole. The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in
England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of
many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures
on the people of England were struck out, lest they give them
offence. The debates having taken up the greater parts of the
2d, 3d and 4th days of July, were, in the evening of the last,
closed. The declaration was reported by the committee, agreed
to by the House, and signed by every member present except
Mr. Dickinson." So far my notes.
Governor McKean, in his letter to McCorkle of July 16th, 1817,
has thrown some lights on the transactions of that day, but trust-
ing to his memory chiefly at an age when our memories are not
to be trusted, he has confounded two questions, and ascribed pro-
ceedings to one which belonged to the other. These two ques-
tions were, 1. The Tirginia motion of June 7th to declare ind.e-
OOERESPO^'DEN'OE. 125
pendence, and 2. The actual declaration, its matter and form.
Thus he states the question on the declaration itself as decided
on the 1st of July. Bat it was the Virginia motion which was
voted on that day in committee of the whole ; South Carolina,
as well as Pennsylvania, then voting against it. Bat the ulti-
mate decision in the House on the report of the committee being
by request postponed to the next morning, all the States voted
for it, except New York, whose vote was delayed for the reason
before stated. It was not till the 2d of July that the declaration
itself was taken up, nor till the 4th that it was decided ; and it
was signed by every member present, except Mr. Dickinson.
The subsequent signatures of members who were not then
present, and some of them not yet in office, is easily explained,
if we observe who they were ; to wit, that they were of New
York and Pennsylvania. New York did not sign till the 15th,
because it was not till the 9th, (five days after the general signa-
ture,) that their convention authorized them to do so. The con-
vention of Pennsylvania, learning that it had been signed by a
minority only of their delegates, named a new delegation on
the 20th, leaving out Mr. Dickinson, who had refused to sign.
Willing and Humphreys who had withdrawn, reappointing the
three members who had signed, Morris who had not been pres-
ent, and five new ones, to wit. Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor
and Ross ; and Morris and the five new members were permitted
to sign, becaase it manifested the assent of their full delegation,
and the express will of their convention, which might have been
doubted on the former signature of a minority only. Why the
signatm-e of Thornton of New Hampshire was permitted so late
as the 4th of November, I cannot now say ; but undoubtedly for
some particular reason which we should find to have been good,
had it been expressed. These were the only post-signers, and
you see, Sir, that there were solid reasons for receiving those of
New York and Pennsylvania, and that this circumstance in no
wise affects the faith of this declaratory charter of om- rights
and of the rights of man.
With a view to correct errors of fact before they become in-
126 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
veterate by repetition, I have stated what I find essentially ma-
terial in my papers ; but with that brevity which the labor of
writing constrains me to use.
On the fourth particular articles of inquiry in your letter, re-
specting your grandfather, the venerable Samuel Adams, neither
memory nor memorandums enable me to give any information.
I can say that he was truly a great man, wise in council, fertile
in resources, immovable in his purposes, and had, I think, a
greater share than any other member, in advising and directing
our measures, m the northern war especially. As a speaker he
could not be compared with his living colleague and namesake,
whose deep conceptions, nervous style, and undaunted firmness,
made him truly our bulwark in debate. But Mr. Samuel Adams,
although not of fluent elocution, was so rigorously logical, so
clear in his views, abundant in good sense, and master always of
his subject, that he commanded the most profound attention
whenever he rose in an assembly by which the froth of decla-
mation was heard with the most sovereign contempt. I sincerely
rejoice that the record of his worth is to be undertaken by one
so much disposed as you will be .to hand him down fairly to that
posterity for whose liberty and happiness he was. so zealous a
laborer.
With sentiments of sincere veneration for his memory, accept
yourself this tribute to it with the assurances of my great re-
spect.
P. S. August 6th, 1822, since the date of this letter, to wit,
this day, August 6th, '22, I received the new publication of the
secret Journals of Congress, wherein is stated a resolution, July
19th, 1776, that the declaration passed on the 4th be fairly en-
grossed on parchment, and when engrossed, be signed by every
member ; and another of August 2d, that being engrossed and
compared at the table, was signed by the members. That is to
say the copy engrossed on parchment (for durability) was signed
by the members after being compared at the table with the origi-
nal one, signed on paper as before stated. I add this P. S. to the
CORRESPONDENCE. 127
copy of my letter to Mr. Wells, to prevent confounding the signa-
ture cl' the original with that of the copy engrossed on parch-
ment.
TO EZRA STYLES, ESQ
JIoNTirELT,o, June 25, 1819.
Your favor, Sir, of the 14th, has been duly received, and with
it the book you were so kind as to forward to me. For this
mark of attention, be pleased to accept my thanks. The science
of the human mind is curious, but is one on which I have not
indulged myself in much speculation. The times in which I
have lived, and the scenes in which I have been engaged, have
required me to keep the mind too much in action to have leisure
to study minutely its laws of action. I am therefore little quali-
fied to give an opinion orj the comparative worth of books on
that subject, and little disposed to do it on any book. Yours has
brought the science within a small compass, and that is the merit
of the first order ; and especially with one to whom the drudgery
of letter writing often denies the leisure of reading a single page
in a week. On looking over the summary of the contents of
your book, it does not seem likely to bring into collision any of
those sectarian differences which you suppose may exist between
us. In that branch of religion which regards the moralities of
life, and the duties of a social being, which teaches us to love
our neighbors as ourselves, and to do good to all men, I am sure
that you and I do not differ. We probably differ on the dogmas
of theology, the foundation of all sectarianism, and on which no
two sects dream alike ; for if they did they would then be
of the same. You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. T
am of a sect by myself, as far as I know. I am not a Jew, and
therefore do not adopt their theology, which supposes the God of
infinite justice to punish the sins of the fathers upon their chil-
dren, unto the third and fourth generation ; and the benevolent
and sublime reformer of that religion has told us only that God
is good and perfect, but has not defined him. I am, therefore,
128 JErrERSON'S WOEKS.
of his theology, believing' that we have neither words nor ideas
adequate to that definition. And if we could all, after this ex-
ample, leave the subject as undefinable, we should all be of one
sect, doers of good, and eschewers of evil. No doctrines of his
lead to schism. It is the speculations of crazy theologists which
have made a Babel of a religion the most moral and sublime ever
preached to man, and calculated to heal, and not to create differ-
ences. These religious animosities I impute to those who call
themselves his ministers, and who engraft their casuistries on the
stock of his simple precepts. I am sometimes more angry wi(h
them than is authorized by the blessed charities which he
preaches. To j^ourself I pray the acceptance of my great respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MONTICELLO, July fl, 1819.
Deak Sie, — I am in debt to you for your letters of May the
21st, 27th, and June the 22d. The first, delivered me by Mr.
Greenwood, gave me the gratification of his acquaintance ; and a
gratification it always is, to be made acquainted with gentlemen
of candor, worth, and information, as I found Mr. Greenwood lo
be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams Wells, shall not
be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to his ad-
vantage.
But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from
Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex
Register, which you were so kind as to enclose in your last, of
June the 22d. And you seem to think it genuine. I believe it
spurious. I deem it to be a very unjustifiable quiz, like that of
the volcano, so minutely related to us as having broken out in
North Carolina, some half a dozen years ago, in that part of the
country, and perhaps in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I
do not remember its precise locality. If this paper be really taken
from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have
escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as
the bee from every flower ; and the National Intelligencer, too,
CORRESPONDENCE. 5*29
which is edited by a North Carolinian ; and that the fire should
blaze out all at once in Essex, one thousand miles from where
the spark is said to have fallen. But if really taken from the
Raleigh Register, who is the narrator, and is the name subscijbed
real, or is it as fictitious as the paper itself ? It appeals, too, to
an original book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead,
to a joint letter from Caswell, Hughes, and- Hooper, all dead, to
a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent to Doctor
Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect,
in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic
step of its county of Mecklenberg. Horry, too, is silent in his
history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country border-
ing on Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt,
historians of the adjacent States, all silent. When Mr. Henry's
resolutions, far short of independence, flew like lightning through
every paper, and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming
declaration of the same date, of the independence of Mecklen-
burg county, of North Carolina, absolving it from the British al-
legiance, and abjuring all political connection with that nation,
although sent to Congress too, is never heard of. It is not known
even a twelvemonth after, when a similar proposition is first
made in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not
you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thunder on
their tardy fears ? Would not every advocate of independence
have rung the glories of Mecklenberg county in North Carolina,
in the ears of the doubting Dickinson and others, who hung so
heavily on us ? Yet the example of independent Mecklenberg
county, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper
speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delegation (Cas-
well, Hooper, Hughes) " in the cause of liberty and indepen-
dence." Now you remember as well as I do, that we had not a
greater tory in Congress than Hooper ; that Hughes was very
wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day
was clear or cloudy ; that Caswell, indeed, was a good whig, and
kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was present ; but
that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then un-
VOL. VII. 9
130 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
certain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes and the vote of the
State. I must not be understood as suggesting any doubtfulness
m the State of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or for-
ward. Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrica-
tion ; because the proof of a negative can only be presumptive.
But I shall believe it such until positive and solemn proof of its
authenticity be produced. And if the name of McKnitt be real,
and not a part of the fabrication, it needs a vindication by the
production of such proof. For the present, I must be an unbe-
liever in the apocryphal gospel.
I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his
friends ; but should have been much more pleased had he accept-
ed the Professorship in our University, which we should have
offered him in form. Mr. Bowditch, too, refuses us ; so fascinat-
ing is the vinculum of the dulce natale solutn. Our wish is to
procure natives, where they can be found, like these gentlemen,
of the first order of requirement in their respective lines ; but
preferring foreigners of the first order to natives of the second,
we shall certainly have to go for several of our Professors, to
countries more advanced in science than we are.
I set out within three or four days for my other home, the dis-
tance of which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epis-
tolary communications. I shall remain there about two months ;
and there, here, and everywhere, I am and shall always be, affec-
tionately and respectfully yours.
TO JOHN BRAZIER, THE AUTHOR OF THE REVIEW OF PICKERING ON
GREEK PRONUNCIATION.
Poplar FoiiKt,T, August '24, 1819.
Sir, — The acknowledgment of your favor of July 15th, and
thanks for the Review which it covered of Mr. Pickering's
Memoir on the Modem Greek, have been delayed by a visit to
an occasional hut distant residence from Monticello, and to an
attack here of rheumatism which is just now moderating. I had
CORRESPONDENCE. 131
been much pleased with the memoir, and was much also with
your review of it. I have little hope indeed of the recovery of
the ancient pronunciation of that finest of human languages, but
still I rejoice at the attention the subject seems to excite with
you, because it is an evidence that our country hegins to have
a taste for something more than merely as much Greek as will
pass a candidate for clerical ordination.
You ask my opinion on the extent to which classical learning
should be carried in our country. A sickly condition permits me
to think, and a rheumatic hand to write too briefly on this litigat-
ed qnestiou. The utilities we derive from the remains of the
Greek and Latin languages are, first, as models of pure taste in
writing. To these we are certainly indebted for the national
and chaste style of modern composition which so much dis-
tinguishes the nations to whom these languages are familiar.
Without these models we should probably have continued the
inflated style of our northern ancestors, or the hyperbolical and
vague one of the east. Second. Among the values of classical
learning, I estimate the luxury of reading the Greek and Roman
authors in all the beauties of their originals. And why should
not this innocent and elegant luxury take, its preeminent stand
ahead of all those addressed merely to the senses ? I think my-
self more indebted to my father for this than for all the other lux-
uries his cares and affections have placed within my reach ; and
more now than when younger, and more susceptible of delights
from other sources. When the decays of age have enfeebled the
useful energies of the mind, the classic pages fill up the vacuum
of ennui, and become sweet composers to that rest of the grave
into which we are all sooner or later to descend. Third. A third
value is in the stores of real science deposited and transmitted us
in these languages, to-wit : in history, ethics,- arithmetic, geom-
etry, astronomy, natural history, &c.
But to whom are these things useful ? Certainly not to all
men. There are conditions of life to which they must be for-
ever estranged, and there are epochs of life too, after which the
endeavor to attain them would be a great misemplovment of
132 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
time. Their acquisition should be the occupation of our early
years only, when the memory is susceptible of deep and ^.asting
impressions, and reason and judgment not yet strong enough for
abstract speculations. To the moralist they are valuable, be-
cause they furnish ethical writings highly and justly esteemed ;
although in my own opinion, the moderns are far advanced be-
yond them in this line of science, the divine finds in the Greek
language a translation of his primary code, of more importance
to him than the original because better understood ; and, in the
same language, the newer code, with the doctrines of the earliest
fathers, who lived and wrote before the simple precepts of the
founder of this most benign and pure of all systems of morality
became frittered into subtleties and mysteries, and hidden under
jargons incomprehensible to the human mind. To these original
sources he must now, therefore, return, to recover the virgin pu-
rity of his religion. The lawyer finds in the Latin language the
system of civil law most conformable with the principles of justice
of any which has ever yet been established among men, and
from which much has been incorporated into our own. The
physician as good a code of his art as has been given us to this
day. Theories and systems of medicine, indeed, have been in
perpetual change from the days of the good Hippocrates to the
days of the good Rush, but which of them is the true one ? the
present, to be sure, as long as it is the present, but to yield its
place in turn to the next novelty, which is then to become the
true system, and is to mark the vast advance of medicine since
the days of Hippocrates. Our situation is certainly iDenefited
by the discovery of some new and very valuable medicines ; and
substituting those for some of his with the treasure of facts, and
of sound observations recorded by him (mixed to be sure with
anilities of his day) and we shall have nearly the present sunv
of the healing art. The statesman will find in these language*
history, politics, mathematics, ethics, eloquence, love of country,
to which he must add the sciences of his own day, for which of
them should be unknown to him ? And all the sciences must
recur to the classical languages for the etymon, and sound under-
CORRESPONDENCE. I33
standing of their fundamental terms. For the merchant I should
not say that the languages are a necessary. Ethics, mathemat-
ics, geography, political economy, history, seem to constitute the
immediate foundations of his calling. The agriculturist needs
ethics, mathematics, chemistry and natural philosophy. The
mechanic the same. To them the languages are but ornament
and comfort. I know it is often said there have been shining
examples of men of great abilities in all the businesses of life,
•without any other science than what they had gathered from con-
versations and intercourse with the world. But who can say
what these men would not have been had they started in the
science on the shoulders of a Demosthenes or Cicero, of a Locke
or Bacon, or a Newton ? To sum the whole, therefore, it may
truly be said that the classical languages are a solid basis for
most, and an ornament to all the sciences.
I am warned by my aching fingers to close this hasty sketch,
and to place here my last and fondest wishes for the advance-
ment of our country in the useful sciences and arts, and my
assurances of respect and esteem for the Reviewer of the Memoir
on modern Greek.
TO JUDGE ROANE.
Poplar Forkst, September 6, 1819.
Dear Sir, — I had read in the Enquirer, and with great appro-
bation, the pieces signed Hampden, and have read them again
with redoubled approbation, in the copies you have been so kind
as to send me. I subscribe to every title of them. They con-
tain the true principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was as
real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of
1776 was in its form ; not efi"ected indeed b};- the sword, as that,
but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suf-
frage of the people. The nation declared its will by dismissing
fmictionaries of one principle, and electing those of another, lu
the two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their
134; JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
election. Over the judiciary department, the constitution had
deprived them of their control. That, therefore, has continued
the reprobated system, and although new matter has been occa-
sionally incorporated into the old, yet the leaven of the old mass
seems to assimilate to itself the new, and after twenty years' con-
firmation of the federated system by the voice of the nation, de-
clared through the medium of elections, we find the judiciary en
every occasion, still driving us into consolidation.
In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly
your quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that " the ju-
diciary is the last resort in relation to the other departtnents of
the governnient, but not in relation to the rights of the parties tc
the compact under which the judiciary is derived." If this
opinion be sound, then indeed is our constitution a complete felo
de se. For intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate
and independent, that they might check and balance one another,
it has given, according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the
right to prescribe rules for the government of the others, and to
that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the na-
tion. For experience has already shown that the impeachment
it has provided is not even a scare -crow ; that such opinions as
the one you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by
detachment, not belonging to the case often, but sought for out
of it, as if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views,
and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been so quietly
passed over as never to have excited animadversion, even in a
speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment.
The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in
the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into
any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of
eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government
is independent, is absolute also ; in theory only, at first, while the
spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.
Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in
ma'is. They are inherently independent of all but moral law.
CORRESPONDENCE. 135
My construction of the constitution is very different from that
you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of
the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the
meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action ;
and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.
I will explain myself by examples, which, having occurred while
I was in office, are better known to me, and the principles which
governed them.
A legislatm'e had passed the sedition law. The lederal courts
had subjected certain individuals to its penalties of fine and im-
prisonment. On coming into office, I released these individuals
by the power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which
could never be more properly exercised than where citizens were
suffering without the authority of law, or, which was equivalent,
under a law unauthorized by the constitution, and therefore null.
In the case of Marbury and Madison, the federal judges declared
that commissions, signed and sealed by the President, were valid,
although not delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete
a deed, which, as long as it remains in the hands of the party, is
as yet no need, it is in posse only, but not in esse, and I with-
held delivery of the commissions. They cannot issue a man-
damus to the President or legislature, or to any of their officers.*
When the British treaty of arrived, without any provision
against the impressment of our seamen, I determined not to rati-
fy it. The Senate thought I should ask their advice. I thought
that would be a mockery of them, when I was predetermined
against following it, should they advise its ratification. The
constitution had made their advice necessary to confirm a treaty,
but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some ; but I have
never doubted its soundness. In the cases of two persons, an-
tenati, under exactly similar circumstances, the federal court had
determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen ; the
House of Representatives nevertheless determined that the other
(Smith, of South CaroHna) was a citizen, and admitted him to
his seat in their body. Duane was a republican, and Smith a
* The constitution controlling the common law in this particilar.
136 JEFFERSON'S WOKKS.
federalist, and these decisions were made during the federal as-
cendancy.
These are examples of my position, that each of the three de^
partments has equally the right to decide for itself what is its
duty under the constitution, without any regard to what the
others may have decided for themselves under a similar question.
But you intimate a wish that my opinion should he known on
this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw from all contests of
opinion, and resign everything cheerfully to the generation now
in place. They are wiser than we were, and their successors
will be wiser than they, from the progressive advance of science.
Tranquillity is the summum bonum of age. I wish, therefore, to
offend no man's opinion, nor to draw disquieting animadversions
on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with a
firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my individual
relations with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their
peace ; and like the superannuated soldier, " quadragenis sti-
pendiis emeritis," to hang my arms on the post. I have unwisely,
I fear, embarked in an enterprise of great public concern, but
not to be accomplished within my term, without their liberal and
prompt support. A severe illness the last year, and another from
which I am just emerged, admonish me that repetitions may be
expected, against which a declining frame cannot long bear up.
I am anxious, therefore, to get our University so far advanced as
may encourage the public to persevere to its final accomplish-
ment. That secured, I shall sing my nmic demittas. I hope
your labors will be long continued in the spirit in which they
have always been exercised, in maintenance of those principles
on which I verily believe the future happiness of our country
essentially depends. I salute you with affectionate and great
respect.
CORRESPONDENCE. I37
TO MK. MOOBE.
JIoNTicisi.LO, September 22, 1819.
1 thank yon, Sir, for the remarks on the pronunciation of the
Greek language which you have been so kind as to send me. I
have read them with pleasure, as I had the pamphlet of Mr.
Pickering on the same subject. This question has occupied long
and learned inquiry, and cannot, as I apprehend, be ever positive-
ly decided. Very early in my classical days, I took up the idea
that the ancient Greek language having been changed by degrees
into the modern, and the present race of that people having re-
ceived it by tradition, they had of course better pretensions to
the ancient pronunciation also, than any foreign nation could
have. When at Paris, I became acquainted with some learned
Greeks, from whom I took pains to learn the modern pronunci-
ation. But I could not receive it as genuine in toto. I could
not believe that the ancient Greeks had provided six different
notations for the simple sound of <, iota, and left the five other
sounds which we give to n, v, i-i, ot, ui, without any characters
of notation at all. I could not acknowledge the i, upsillon, as
an equivalent to our v, as in A/tUfyg, which they pronounce
Achillevs, nor the ) , gamma, to oiu- y, as in uX. ;, which they pro-
nounce alye. I concluded, therefore, that as experience proves
to us that the pronunciation of all languages changes, in their
descent through time, that of the Greek must have done so also
in some degree ; and the more probably, as the body of the words
themselves had substantially changed, and I presumed that the
instances above mentioned might be classed with the degener-
acies of time ; a presumption strengthened by their remarkable
cacophony. As to all the other letters, I have supposed we
might yield to their traditionary claim of a more orthodox pro-
nunciation. Indeed, they sound most of them as we do, and,
where they diifer, as in the f, (5, x, their souiids do not revolt us,
nor impair the beauty of the language.
If we adhere to the Erasmian pronunciation, we must go to
Italy for it, as we must do for the most probably correct pronun-
138 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
ciation of the language of the Romans, because rejecting the
modern, we must argue that the ancient pronunciation was prob-
ably brought from Greece, with the language itself; and, as Italy-
was the country to which it was brought, and from which it eman-
ated to other nations, we must presume it better presei-ved there
than with the nations copying from them, who would be apt to af-
fect its pronunciation with some of their own national peculiarities.
And in fact, we find that no two nations pronounce it alike,
although all pretend to the Erasmian pronunciation. But the
■whole subject is conjectural, and allows therefore full and lawful
scope to the vagaries of the human mind. I am glad, however,
to see the question stirred here ; because it may excite among
our young countrymen a spirit of inquiry and criticism, and lead
them to more attention to this most beautiful of all languages.
And wishing that the salutary example you have set may have
this good effect, I salute you with great respect and consideration-
TO MR. SHORT.
MoNTioi.,i.LO, October 31, 1819.
Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 21st is received. My late ill-
ness, in which you are so kind as to feel an interest, was produced
by a spasmodic stricture of the ilium, which came upon me on
the 7th inst. The crisis was short, passed over favorably on the
fourth day, and I should soon have been well but that a dose of
calomel and jalap, in which were only eight or nine grains of
the former, brought on a salivation. Of this, however, nothing
now remains but a little soreness of the mouth. I have been
able to get on horseback for three or four days past.
As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the
genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing
everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome
have left us. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of
the stoics ; all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and
grimace. Their great crime was 'in their calumnies of Epicurus
CORRESPONDENCE. 139
and misrepresentations of his doctrines ; in which we lament to
see the candid character of Cicero engaging as an accomplice.
Diffuse, vapid, rhetorical, hut enchanting. His prototype Plato,
eloquent as himself, dealing out mysticisms incomprehensible to
the human mind, has been deified by certain sects usiu-ping the
name of Christians ; because, in his foggy conceptions, they found
a basis of impenetrable darkness whereon to rear fabrications as
delirious, of their own invention. These they fathered blasphe-
mously on him whom they claimed as their founder, but who
would disclaim them with the indignation which their carica-
tures of his religion so justly excite. Of Socrates we have no-
thing genuine but in the Memorabilia of Xenophon; for Plato
makes him one of his Collocutors merely to cover his own
whimsies under the mantle of his name ; a libertjr of which we
are told Socrates himself complained. Seneca is indeed a fine
moralist, disfiguring his work at times with some Stoicisms, and
afli'ecting too much of antithesis and point, yet giving us on the
whole a great deal of sound and practical morality. But the
greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of his own
country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his
from the rubbish in which it is bmied, easily distinguished by
its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from
that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of
a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen
from the lips of man ; outlines which it is lamentable he did not
live to fill up. Epictetus and Epicm-us give laws for governing
ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe
to others. The estabhshment of the innocent and genuine char-
acter of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the im-
putation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems,*
invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word
ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which
"■■ e. g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the
world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, hig
corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regener-
ation, election, orders of Hierarchy, <Sjo.
140 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Priestley has successfully devoted his labors and learning. It
would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the
heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed
over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted man-
kind ; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from
the chaff of the historians of his life. I have sometimes thought
of translating Epictetus (for he has never been tolerable translat-
ed into English) by adding the genuine doctrines of Epicurus
from the Syntagma of Gassendi, and an abstract from the Evan-
gelists of whatever has the stamp of the eloquence and fine im-
agination of Jesus. The last I attempted too hastily some twelve
or fifteen years ago. It was the work of two or three nights
only, at Washington, after getting through the evening task of
reading the letters and papers of the day. But with one foot in
the grave, these are now idle projects for me. My business is to
beguile the wearisomeness of declining life, as I endeavor to do,
by the delights of classical reading and of mathematical truths,
and by the consolations of a sound philosophy, equally indiffer-
ent to hope and fear.
I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple
of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you
say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that
" that indulgence which presents a greater pleasure, or produces
a greater pain, is to be avoided." Your love of repose will lead,
in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation
of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to
a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all
things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences
of Epicurus ensure ; fortitude, you know, is one of his four car-
dinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and suriiiount diflicul-
ties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain,
for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road. Weigh
this matter well; brace yourself up ; take a seat with Correa, and
come and see the finest portion of your country, which, if you
have not forgotten, you still do not know, because it is no longer
the same as when you knew it. It wfll add much to the happi-
COREESPOKDENOE. 141
ness of my recovery to be able to receive Correa and yourself,
and prove the estimation in which I hold 5-ou both. Come, too,
and see our incipient University, which has advanced with great
activity this year. By the end of the next, we shall have elegant
accommodations for seven professors, and the year following the
professors themselves. No secondary character will be received
among them. Either the ablest which America or Europe can
furnish, or none at all. They will give us the selected society
of a great city separated from the dissipations and levities of its
ephemeral insects.
I am glad the bust of Condorcet has been saved and so well
placed. His genius should be before us; while the lamentable,
but singular act of ingratitude which tarnished his latter days,
may be thrown behind us.
I will place under this a syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus,
somewhat in the lapidary style, which I wrote some twenty years
ago, a like one of the philosophy of Jesus, of nearly the same
age, is too long to bo copied. Vale, et tibi persuade carissimum
te esse niihi.
Syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus.
Physical. — The Universe eternal.
Its parts, great and small, interchangeable.
Matter and Void alone.
Motion inherent in matter which is weighty and declining.
Eternal circulation of the elements of bodies.
Gods, an order of beings next superior to man, enjoying m
their sphere, their own felicities ; but not meddling with the con-
cerns of the scale of beings below them.
Moral. — Happiness the aim of life.
Virtue the foundation of happiness.
Utility the test of virtue.
Pleasure active and In-do-lent.
In-do-lence is the absence of pain, the true felicity.
Active, consists in agreeable motion ; it is not happiness, but
the means to produce it.
142 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Thus the absence of hunger is an article of felicity ; eating
the means to obtain it.
The summiim bonum is to be not pained in body, nor troubled
in mind.
i. e. In-do-lence of body, tranquillity of mind.
To procure tranquillity of mind we must avoid desire and fear,
the two principal diseases of the mind.
Man is a free agent.
Virtue consists in 1. Prudence. 2. Temperance. 3. Fortitude.
4. Justice.
To which are opposed, 1. Folly. 2. Desire. 3. Fear. 4. Deceit.
TO J. ADAMS, ESq.
McKNTicELLn, November 7, 1819.
Dear Sir, — Three long and dangerous illnesses within the last
twelve months, must -apologize for my long silence towards you.
The paper bubble is then burst. This is what you and I, and
every reasoning man, seduced by no obliquity of mind or inter-
est, have long foreseen ; yet its disastrous effects are not the less
for having been foreseen. We were laboring under a dropsical
fulness of circulating medium. Nearly all of it is now called in
by the banks, who have the regulation of the safety-valves of
our fortunes, and who condense and explode them at their will.
Lands in this State cannot now be sold for a year's rent ; and
unless our Legislature have wisdom enough to effect a remedy
by a gradual diminution only of the medium, there will be a gen-
eral revolution of property in this State. Over our own paper
and that of other States coming among us, they have competent
powers; over that of the bank of the United States there is doubt,
not here, but elsewhere. That bank will probably conform vol-
untarily to such regulations as the Legislature may prescribe for
the others. If they do not, we must shut their doors, and join
the other States which deny the right of Congress to establish
banks, and solicit them to agree to some mode of settling this
COEEESPON"DEN"OE. I43
constitutional question. They have themselves twice decided
against their right, and twice for it. Many of the States have
been uniform in denying it, and between such parties the Con-
stitution has provided no umpire. I do not know particularly
the extent of this distress in the other States ; but southwardly
and westwardly I believe all are involved in it. God bless you,
and preserve you many years.
TO COLONEL JOHN NICHOLAS.
MoNTioELLo, Novembei' 10, 1819.
SiK, — Your letter, and the draught of a memorial proposed to
be presented to the Legislature, are duly received. With respect
to impressions from any differences of political opinion, whether
major or minor, alluded to in your letter, I have none. I left
them all behind me on quitting Washington, where alone the
state of things had, till then, required some attention to them.
Nor was that the lightest part of the load I was there disburthened
of; and could I permit myself to believe that with the change
of circumstances a corresponding change had taken place in the
minds of those who differed from me, and that I now stand in
the peace and good will of my fellow-citizens generally, it would
indeed be a sweetening ingredient in the last dregs of my life.
It is not then from that source that my testimony may be scanty,
but from a decaying memory, illy retaining things of recent trans-
action, and scarcely with any distinctness those of forty years
back, the period to which your memorial refers : general im-
pressions of them -remain, but details are mostly obliterated.
Of the transfer of your corps from the general to the State
line, and the other facts in the memorial preceding my entrance
on the administration of the State government, June 2, 1779, I,
of course, have no knowledge ; but public documents, as well as
living witnesses, will probably supply this. In 1780, I remem-
ber your appointment to a command in the militia sent under
General Stevens to the aid of the Carolinas, of which fact the
144 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
commission signed by myself is sufficient proof. But I have no
particular recollections which respect yourself personally in that
service. Of what took place during Arnold's invasion in the sub-
sequent winter I have more knowledge, because so much passed
under my own eye, and I have the benefit of some notes to aid
my memory. In the short interval of fifty-seven hours between
our knowing they had entered James river and their actual de-
barkation at Westover, we could get together but a small body of
militia, (my notes say of three hundred men only, ) chiefly from the
city and its immediate vicinities. You were placed in the com-
mand of these, and ordered to proceed to the neighborhood of
the enemy, not with any view to face them directly with so
small a force, but to hang on their skirts, and to check their
march as much as could be done, to give time for the more dis-
tant militia to assemble. The enemy were not to be delayed,
however, and were in Richmond in twenty-four hours from their
being formed on shore at Westover. The day before their ar-
rival at Richmond, I had sent my family to Tuckahoe, as the
memorial states, at which place I joined them about 1 o'clock of
that night, having attended late at Westham, to have the public
stores and papers thrown across the river. You came up to us
at Tuckahoe the next morning, and accompanied me, I think, to
Britton's opposite Westham, to see about the further safety of the
arms and other property. Whether you stayed there to look
after them, or went with me to the heights of Manchester, and
returned thence to Britton's, I do not recollect. The enemy
evacuated Richmond at noon of the 5th of January, having re-
mained there but twenty-three hours. I returned to it in the
morning of the 8th, they being still encamped at Westover and
Berkley, and yourself and corps at the Forest. They re-em-
barked at 1 o'clock of the 10th. The particulars of your move-
ments down the river, to oppose their re-landing at different
points, I do not specifically recollect, but, as stated in the me-
morial, they are so much in agreement with my general impress-
ions, that I have no doubt of their correctness, and I know that
your conduct from the first advance of the enemy to his depar-
COREESPONDENOE. 145
ture, "was approved by myself and by others generally. The
rendezvous of the militia at the Tuckahoe bridge, and your hav-
ing the command of them, I think I also remember, but nothing
of their subsequent movements. The legislature had adjourned
to meet at Charlottesville, where, at the expiration of my second
year, I declined a re-election in the belief that a military man
would be more likely to render services adequate to the exigencies
of the times. Of the subsequent facts, therefore, stated in the
memorial, I have no knowledge.
This, Sir, is the sum of the information I am able to give on
the subjects of your memorial, and if it may contribute to the
purposes of justice in your case, I shall be happy that in bearing
testimony to the truth, I shall have rendered you a just service.
I return the memorial and commission, as requested, and pray
you to accept my respectful salutations.
TO MR. HIVES.
iloNTiCELLo, November 28, 1819.
Dear Sir, — The distresses of our country, produced first b^
the flood, then by the ebb of bank paper, are such as cannot fail
to engage the interposition of the legislature. Many propositions
will, of course, be offered, from all of which something may
probably be culled to make a good whole. I explained to you
my project, when I had the pleasure of possessing you here ; and
I now send its outline in writing, as I believe I promised you.
Although preferable things will I hope be offered, yet some twig
of this may perhaps be thought worthy of being engrafted on a
better stock. But I send it with no particular object or request,
but to use it as you please. Suppress it, suggest it, sound opin-
ions, or anything else, at will, only Keeping my name unmen-
tioned, for which purpose it is copied in another hand, being
ever solicitous to avoid all offence which is heavily felt, when
retired from the bustle and contentions of the world. If we suffer
the moral of the present lesson to pass away without improvement
VOL. VII. 10
146 JEFFERSON'S W0RK<5
by the eternal suppression of bank paper, then indeed is the con
dition of our country desperate, until the slow advance of public
instruction shall give to our functionaries the wisdom of theii
station. Vale, et tibi persuade carisshnum te mihi esse.
Plan for reducing the circulating medium.
The plethory of circulating medinm which raised the prices
of everything to several times their ordinary and standard value,
in which state of things many and heavy debts were contracted ;
and the sudden withdrawing too great a proportion of that me-
dium, and reduction of prices far below that standard, constitute
the disease under which we are now laboring, and which must
end in a general revolution of property, if some remedy is not ap-
plied. That remedy is clearly a gradual redaction of the medium
to its standard level, that is to say, to the level which a metallic
medium will always find for itself, so as to he. in equilibrio with
that of the nations with which we have commerce.
To effect this,
Let the whole of the present paper medium be suspended in
its circulation after a certain and not distant day.
Ascertafn by proper inquiry the greatest sum of it which has
at any one time been in actual circulation.
Take a certain term of years for its gradual reduction, suppose
\t to be five years ; then let the solvent banks issue I of that
amount in new notes, to be attested by a public officer, as a se-
curity that neither more or less is issued, and to he given out in
exchange for the suspended notes, and the surplus in discount.
Let ^th of these notes bear on their face that the bank will
discharge them with specie at the end of one year ; another 5th
at the end of two years ; a third 5th at the end of three years ;
and so of the 4th and 5th. They will be sure to be brought in'
at their respective periods of redemption.
Make it a high offence to receive or pass within this State a
note of any other.
There is little doubt that our banks will agree readily to this
operation ; if they refuse, declare their charters forfeited by their
COEEESPONDElSrOE. 147
former irregularities, and give summary process against them for
the suspended notes.
The Bank of the United States will probably concur also ; if
not, shut their doors and join the other States in respectful, but
firm applications to Congress, to concur in constituting a tri-
bunal (a special convention, e. g.) for settling amicably the ques-
tion of then- right to institute a bank, and that also of the States
to do the same.
A stay-law for the suspension of executions, and their discharge
at five annual instalments, should be accommodated to these
measures.
Interdict forever, to both the State and national governments,
the power of establishing any paper bank ; for without this in-
terdiction, we shall have the same ebbs and flows of medium,
and the same revolutions of property to go through every twenty
or thirty years.
In this way the value of property, keeping pace nearly with
the sum of circulating medium, will descend gradually to its
proper level, at the rate of about i every year, the sacrifices of
what shall be sold for payment of the first instalments of debts
will be moderate, and time will be given for economy and indus-
try to come in aid of those subsequent. Certainly no nation
ever before abandoned to the avarice and jugglings of private
individuals to regulate, according to their own interests, the
quantum of circulating medium for the nation, to inflate, by
deluges of paper, the nominal prices of property, and then to buy
up that property at Is. in the pound, having first withdrawn the
» floating medium which might endanger a competition in pur-
chase. Yet this is what has been done, and will be done, unless
stayed by the protecting hand of the legislature. The evil has
been produced by the error of their sanction of this ruinous ma-
chinery of banks ; and justice, wisdom, duty, all require that
they should interpose and arrest it before the schemes of plunder
and spoliation desolate the country. It is believed that Harpiea
are already hoarding their money to commence these scenes on
the separation 'of the legislature; and we know that lands have
been already sold under the hammer for less than a year's rent.
148 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
TO JOHX ADAMS.
MoNTiOELLO, December 10, ISiy.
Deak Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favoi
of November the 23d. The banks, bankrupt law, manufactures,
Spanish treaty, are nothing. These are occurences which, like
waves in a storm, will pass under the ship. But the Missouri
question is a breaker on which we lose the Missouri country by
revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the battle of
Bunker's Hill to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous a
question. It even damps the joy with which I hear of your
high health, and welcomes to me the consequences of my want
of it. I thank God that I shall not live to witness its issue. Sed
hcBC hactenus.
I have beeniamusing myself latterly with reading the volumi-
nous letters of Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effu-
sions of an exalted patriot, while the parricide Cassar is lost in
odious contrast. When the enthusiasm, however, kindled by
Cicero's pen and principles, subsides into cool reflection, I ask
myself, what was that government which the virtues of Cicero
were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar to subvert ?
And if Cassar had been as virtuous as he was daring and saga-
cious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped pow-
er, have done to lead his fellow citizens into good government ?
I do not say to restore it, because they never had it, from the
rape of the Sabines to the ravages of the Ca3sars. If their peo-
ple indeed had been, like ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and
really free, the answer would be obvious. " Restore indepcn'-#
dence to all your foreign conquests, relieve Italy from the govern-
ment of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a nation entitled to
self-government, and do its will." But steeped in corruption,
vice and venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody had
done more than Caesar to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero,
Cato, Brutus have done, had it been referred to them to establish
a good government for their country ? They had no ideas of
government themselves, but of their degenerate Senate, nor the
CORRESPONDENCE, I49
people of liberty, but of the factious opposition of thtir Tribunes.
They had afterwards their Tituses, their Trajans and Antoni-
nuses, who had the will to make them happy, and the power to
mould their governmant into a good and permanent form. But
it would seem as if they could not see their way clearly to do it.
No government can continue good, but under the control of the
people ; and their people were so demoralized and depraved, as to
be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their refor-
mation then was to be taken up ab incunabulis. Their minds
were to be informed by education what is right and what wrong ;
to be encouraged in habits of virtue, and deterred from those of
vice by the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irre-
missible ; in all cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and
to eschew error, which bewilders us in one false consequence
after another, in endless succession. These are the inculcations
necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure of
order and good government. But this would have been an oper-
ation of a generation or two, at least, within which period would
have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have
quashed the whole process. I confess then, I can neither see
what Cicero, Cato and Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could
have devised to lead their people into good government, nor how
this enigma can be solved, nor how further shown why it has
been the fate of that delightful country never to have known, to
this day, and through a course of five and twenty hundred years,
the history of which we possess, one single day of free and ra-
tional government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient
middle and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in
the science of government at this time, will enable you, if any
body, to go back with our principles and opinions to the times
of Cicero, Cato and Brutus, and tell us by what process these
great and" virtuous men could have led so unenlightened and vi-
tiated a people into freedom and good government, et eris mihi
magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas carisjimum
te mihi esse.
150 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
MoNTEziLLO, December 21, 1819.
Dear Sir, — I must answer your great question of the 10th
in the words of Dalembert to his correspondent, who abked him
what is matter — " Je vous avoue je ne sqais rien.'''' In some
part of my life I record a great work of a Scotchman on the
court of Augustus, in which, with much learning, hard study,
and fatiguing labor, he undertook to prove that had Brutus and
Cassius been conqueror, they would have restored virtue and
liberty to Rome.
Mais je n^en crois rien. Have you ever found in history one
single example of a nation, thoroughly corrupted, that was after-
wards restored to virtue, and without virtue there can be no po-
litical liberty.
If I were a Calvinist, I might pray that God by a miracle of
divine grace would instantaneously convert a whole contaminated
nation from turpitude to purity ; but even in this I should be in-
consistent, for the fatalism of Mahometanism, Materialists, Athe-
ists, Pantheists, and Calvinists, and church of England articles,
appear to me to render all prayer futile and absurd. The French
and the Dutch, in our day, have attempted reforms and revolu-
tions. We know the results, and I fear the English reformers
will have no better success.
Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the ef-
fects of temperance and industry. Will you tell me how to pre-
vent riches from producing luxury. Will you tell me how to
prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extrava-
gance, vice and folly ? When you will answer me these ques-
tions, I hope I may venture to answer yours ; yet all these ought
not to discourage us from exertion, for with my friend Jeb, I be-
lieve no effort in favor of virtue is lost, and all good men ought
to struggle both by their council and example.
The Missouri question, 1 hope, will follow the other waves
under the ship, and do no harm. I know it is high treason to
express a doubt of the perpetual duration of our vast American
UOREESPONDENOE. 151
empire, and our free institution ; and I say as devoutly as father
Paul, estor perpetua, but I am sometimes Cassandra enough to
dream that another Hamilton, and another Burr, might rend this
mighty fabric in twain, or perhaps into a leash ; and a few more
choice spirits of the same stamp, might produce as many nations
in North America as there are in Europe.
To return to the Romans. I never could discover that they
possessed much virtue, or real liberty. Their Patricians were in
general griping usurers, and tyrannical creditors in all ages.
Pride, strength, and courage, were all the virtues that composed
their national characters ; a few of their nobles effecting sim-
plicity, frugality, and piety, perhaps really possessing them, ac-
quired popularity amongst the plebeians, and extended the power
and dominions of the republic, and advanced in glory till riches,
and luxury come in, sat like an incubus on the Republic, victam
que ulcissitur orbem.
Our winter sets in a fortnight earlier than usual, and is pretty
severe. I hope you have fairer skies, and milder air. Wishing
your health may last as long as your life, and your life as long
as you desire it, I am, dear Sir, respectfully and affectionately,
TO H. NELSON, ESq.
MoNTicELLo, March 12, 1820
I thank you, dear Sir, for the information in your favor of the
4th instant, of the settlement, for the present, of the Missouri
question. I am so completely withdrawn from all attention to
public matters, that nothing less could arouse me than the defi-
nition of a geographical line, which on an abstract principle is to
become the line of separation of these State?, and to render des-
perate the hope that man can ever enjoy the two blessings of
peace and self-government. The question sleeps for the present,
but is not dead. This State is in a condition of unparalleled dis-
tress. The sudden reduction of the circulating medium from
a plethory to all but annihilation is producing an entire revolution
152 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
of fortune. In other places I have known lands sold by the
sheriff for one year's rent ; beyond the mountain we hear of
good slaves selling for one hundred dollars, good horses for five
dollars, and the sheriffs generally the purchasers. Our produce
is now selling at market for one-third of its price, before this
commercial catastrophe, say flour at three and a quarter and three
and a half dollars the barrel. We should have less right to ex-
pect relief from our legislators if they had been the establishers
of the unwise system of banks. A remedy to a certain degree
was practicable, that of reducing the quantum of circulation
gradually to a level with that of the countries with which we
have commerce, and an eternal abjuration of paper. But they
have adjourned without doing anything. I fear local insurrec-
■ tions against these hori'ible sacrifices of property. In every con-
dition of trouble or tranquillity be assured of my constant esteem
and respect.
TO MB. ADAMS.
MoNTicKLi.o, March 14, 1820.
Deah Sir, — A continuation of poor health makes me an ir-
regular correspondent. I am, therefore, your debtor for the two
letters of January 20th and February 21st. It was after you
left Europe that Dugald Stuart, concerning whom you inquire,
and Lord Dare, second son of the Marquis of Lausdovvn, came
to Paris. They brought me a letter from Lord Wycorpbe, whom
you knew. I became immediately intimate with Stuart, calling
mutually on each other and almost daily, during their stay at
Paris, which was of some months. Lord Dare was a young man
of imagination, with occasional flashes indicating deep penetra-
tion, but of much caprice, and little judgment. He has been
long dead, and the family title is now, I believe, in the third son,
who has shown in Parliament talents of a superior order. Stuart
is a great man, and among the most honest living. I have heard
nothing of his dying at top, as you suppose. Mr. Ticknor, how-
ever, can give you the best information on that subject, as he
OOERESPONDENOE. 153
must have heard particularly of him when in Edinburgh, al-
though I believe he did not see him. I have understood he was
then in London superintending the publication of a new work.
I consider him and Tracy as the ablest metaphysicians living ;
by which I mean investigators of the thinking faculty of man.
Stuart seems to have given its natural history from facts and ob-
servations ; Tracy its modes of action and dedaction, which he
cplls Logic, and Ideology ; and Cabanis, in his Physique et
Morale de I'Homme, has investigated anatomically, and most in-
geniously, the particular organs in the human structure which
may most probably exercise that faculty. And they ask why
may not the mode of action called thought, have been given to
a material organ of peculiar structure, as that of magnetism is to
the needle, or of elasticity to the spring by a particular manipu-
lation of the steel. They observe that on ignition of the needle
or spring, their magnetism and elasticity cease. So on dissolu-
tion of the material organ by death, its action of thought may
cease also, and that nobody supposes that the magnetism or elas-
ticity retire to hold a substantive and distinct existence. These
were qualities only of particular conformations of matter ; change
the conformation, and its qualities change also. Mr. Locke, you
know, and other materialists, have charged with blasphemy the
spiritualists who have denied the Creator the power of endowing
certain forms of matter with the faculty of thought. These,
however, are speculations and subtleties in Avhich, for my own
part, I have little indulged myself. When I meet with a propo-
sition beyond finite comprehension, I abandon it as I do a weight
which human strength cannot lift, and I think ignorance, in these
cases, is truly the softest pillow on which I can lay my head.
Were it necessary, however, to form an opinion, I confess I
should, with Mr. Locke, prefer swallowing one incomprehensi-
bility rather than two. It requires one effort only to admit the
single incomprehensibility of matter endowed with thought, and
two to believe, first that of an existence called spirit, of which
vre have neither evidence nor idea, and then secondly how that
spirit, which has neither extension nor solidity, can put material
154 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
organs into motion. These are things which you and I may
perhaps know ere long. We have so lived as to fear neither
horn of the dilemma. We have, willingly, done injury to no
man ; and have done for our country the good which has fallen
in our way, so far as commensurate with the faculties given us.
That we have not done more than we could, cannot be imputed
to us as a crime before any tribunal. I look, therefore, to the
crisis, as I am sure you also do, as one " qui sunimutn nee metuii
diem nee optat." In the meantime be our last as cordial as were
our first affections.
TO THE HONORABLE MARK LANGDON HILL.
MoNTiCELLO, April 5, 1820.
Sir, — A near relation of my late friend Governor Langdon,
needs no apology for addressing a letter to me, that relationship
giving sufficient title to all my respect. We were fellow labor-
ers from the beginning of the first to the accomplishment of the
second revolution in our government, of the same zeal and the
■same sentiments, and I shall honor his memory while memory
remains to me. The letter you mention is proof of my friend-
ship and unreserved confidence in him ; it was written in warm
times, and is therefore too warmly expressed for the more rec-
onciled temper of the present day. I must pray you, therefore,
not to let it get before the public, lest it rekindle a flame which
burnt too long and too fiercely against me. It was my lot to be
placed at the head of the column which made the first breach in
the ramparts of federalism, and to be charged, on that event, with
the duty of changing the course of the government from what
we deemed a monarchical, to its republican tack. This made
me the mark for every shaft which calumny and falsehood could
point against me. I bore them 'with resignation, as one of the
duties imposed on me by my post. But I assure you it was
among the most painful duties from which I hoped to find relief
in retirement. Tranquillity is the summum honum of old age
and ill health, and nothing could so much disturb this with me
GOEEESPONDENCE. 155
as to awaken angry feelings from the slumber in which I wish
them ever to remain. I beseech you then, good Sir, in the name
of my departed friend, not to bring on me a contention which
neither duty nor public good require me to encounter.
I regret the circumstances which have .deprived us of the pleas-
ure of your visit, but console myself with the French proverb
that " all is not lost which is deferred," and the hope that more
favorable circumstances will some day give us that gratification.
I congratulate you on the sleep of the Missouri question. I wish
I could say on its death, but of this I despair. The idea of a
geographical line once suggested will brood in the minds of all
those who prefer the gratification of their .ungovernable passions
to the peace and union of their country. If I do not contem-
plate this subject with pleasure, I do sincerely that of the inde-
pendence of Maine, and the wise choice they have made of
General King in the agency of their affairs, and I tender to your-
self the assurance of my esteem and respect.
TO WILLIAM SHOKT.
MoNTicELLo, April 13, 1820.
Dear Sir, — Your favor of March the 27th is received, and as
you request, a copy of the syllabus is now enclosed. It was
originally written to Dr. Rush. On his death, fearing that the
inquisition of the public might get hold of it, I asked the return
of it from the family, which they kindly complied with. At
the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent
it to Ids friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it
appeared in the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that
repository is scarcely known in this country, and the syllabus,
therefore, is still a secret, and in your hands I am sure it will con-
tinue so.
Bat while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus
in its true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great re-
former of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood
156 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
that I am with him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist ; he
takes the side of Spiritualism ; he preaches the efficacy of re-
pentance towards forgiveness of sin ; I require a counterpoise of
good works to redeem it, &c., &c. It is the innocence of his
character, the purity and sublimity of his moral precepts, the
eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in
which he conveys them, that I so much admire ; sometimes, in-
deed, needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies,
too, may be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready
to grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him by
his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct
morality, and of the most lovely benevolence ; and others, again,
of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth,
charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that
such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.
I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross ; restore to him the
former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery
of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors,
Paul was the great Coryphasus, and first corrupter of the doc-
trines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications
of his doctrines, led me to try to sift them apart. I found the
work obvious and easy, and that his part composed the most beau-
tiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man.
The syllabus is therefore of his doctrines, not all of mine. I read
them as I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with
a mixture of approbation and dissent.
I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal im-
provement prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever
expressed of the advantages of a western communication through
the James river, I still entertain ; and that the Cayuga is the
most promising of the links of communication.
The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the
ten jiavilions destined for the professors, and ^bout thirty dormi-
tories, will he completed this year, and three other, with six
hotels for boarding, and seventy other dormitories, will be com-
pleted' the next year, and the whole be in readiness then to re-
CORRESPONDENCE. 157
ceive those who are to occupy them. Bat means to bring these
into place, and to set the machine into motion, must come from
the legislature. An opposition, in the meantime, has been got
up. That of our alma mater, William and Mary, is not of much
weight. She must descend into the secondary rank of academies
of preparation for the University. The serious enemies are the
priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the hu-
man mind its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits are now
resounding with denunciations against the appointment of Doctor
Cooper, whom they charge as a monotheist in opposition to their
tritheism. Hostile as these sects are, in every other point, to one
another, they unite in maintaining their mystical theogony against
those who believe there is one God only. The Presbyterian
clergy are loudest ; the most intolerant of all sects, the most ty-
rannical and ambitious ; ready at the word of the lawgiver, if
such a word could be now obtained, to put the torch to the pile,
and to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere, the flames in which
their oracle Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because he could
not find in his Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated
that three are one and one is three, nor subscribe to that of Cal-
vin, that magistrates have a right to exterminate all heretics to
Calvinistic Creed. They pant to re-establish, by law, that holy
inquisition, which they can now only infuse into public opinion.
We have most unwisely committed to the hierophants of our par-
ticular superstition, the direction of public opinion, that lord of
the universe. We have given them stated and privileged days
to collect and catechise us, opportunities of delivering their ora-
cles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as wax
in the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulmina-
tions against endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve
the reason of the people, and encourage them in the use of it, the
liberality of this State will support this institution, and give fair
play to the cultivation of reason. Can you ever find a more
eligible occasion of visiting once more your native country, than
that of accompanying Mr. Correa, and of seeing with him this
beautiful and hopeful institution in ovo ?
158 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write
talk, or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs^
and therefore had ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri
question aroused and iiiled me Avith alarm. The old schism of
federal and republican threatened nothing, because it existed in
every State, and united them together by the fraternism of
party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and
political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would
never more be obliterated from the mind ; that it would be re-
curring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would
kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation
preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most san-
guine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I
now doubt it mucM, and see the event at no great distance,
and the direct consequence of this question ; not by the line
which has been so confidently counted on ; the laws of nature
control this ; but by the Potomac, Ohio and Missouri, or more
probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My
only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this ;
and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing
away the fruits of their fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and
of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide ulti-
mately whether man is capable of self-government ? This trea-
son against human hope, will signalize their epoch in future his-
tory, as the counterpart of the medal of their predecessors.
You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it
immediately threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down
mechanically, by bandages from the toe to the knee. These I
have worn for six months. But the tendency to turgidity may
proceed from debility alone. I can walk the round of my gar-
den ; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day without
fatigue. I shall . set out for Poplar Forest within three or four
days ; a journey from which my physician augurs much good.
I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and re-
spect.
CORRESPONDENCE. ■ 159
TO JOHN HOLMES.
MosTiCELLo, April 22, 1S20.
I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as
to send me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri
question. It is a perfect justification to them. I had for a long
time ceased to read newspapers, or pay any attention to public
affairs, confident they were in good hands, and content to be a
passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not distant.
But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night,
awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as
the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment.
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical
line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political,
once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
never be obliterated ; and every new irritation will mark it deep-
er and deeper. /I can say, with conscious truth, that there is not
a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve
us from this heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The ces-
sion of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle
which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a
general emancipation and expatriation could be effected ; and
gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as
it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold
him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-pres-
ervation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as the
passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a
slave of a single human being who would not be so without it,
so their diffusion over a greater surface would make them indi-
vidually happier, and proportionally facilitate the accomplish-
ment of their emancipation, by dividing the burthen on a greater
number of coadjutors. An abstinence too, from this act of pow-
er, would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of
Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions
of men composing a St^te. This certainly is the exclusive
right of every State, which nothing in the constitution has taken
160 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
from them and given to the General Government. Could Con-
gress, for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut
shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any other
State ?
I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless
sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-
government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away
by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my
only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they
would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw
away, against an abstract principle more likely to be eflected by
union than by scission, they would pause befoje they would per-
petrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of. treason against
the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Mo.NTicKLLO, May 14, 1820.
Deak Sir, — Your favor of the 3d is received, and always with
welcome. These texts of truth relieve me from the floating
falsehoods of the public papers. I confess to yoQ I am not sorry
for the non-ratification of the Spanish treaty. Our assent to it
has proved our desire to be on friendly terms with Spain ; their
dissent, the imbecility and malignity of their government towards
us, have placed them in the wrong in the eyes of the world, and
that is well ; but to us the province of Techas will be the richest
State of our Union, without any exception. Its southern part
will make more sugar than we can consume, and the Red river,
on its north, is the most luxuriant country on earth. Florida,
moreover, is ours. Every nation in Europe considers it such a
right. We need not care for its occupation in time of peace, and,
in war, the first cannon makes it ours without offence to anybody.
The friendly advisements, too, of Russia and France, as well as
the change of government in Spain, now ensured, require a fur-
COKEESPONDENOE. 161
ther and respectful forbearance. While their request will rebut
the plea of prescriptive possession, it will give us a right to iheir
approbation when taken in the maturity of circumstances. I
really think, too, that neither the state of our finances, the con-
dition of our country, nor the public opinion, urges us to precipi-
tation into war. The treaty has had the valuable effect of
strengthening our title to the Techas, because the cession of the
Floridas in exchange for Techas imports an acknowledgment
of our right to it. This province moreover, the Floridas and
possibly Cuba, will join us on the acknowledgment of their inde-
pendence, a measure to which thoir new governiifient will proba-
bly accede voluntarily. But why should I be saying ail this to
you, whose mind all the circumstances of this affair have had
possession for years ? I shall rejoice to see you here ; and were
I to live to see you here finally, it would be a day of jubilee.
But our days are all numbered, and mine are not many. God
bless you and preserve you micchos anos
TO GENERAL TAYLOR.
MoNTiCELLO, May 16, 1820.
Dear Sir, — We regretted much your absence at the late meet-
ing of the Board of Visitors, but did not doubt it was occasioned
by uncontrollable circumstances. As the matters which came be-
fore us were of great importance to the institution, I think it a
duty to inform you of them.
You know the sanction of the legislature to our borrowing
$60,000 on the pledge of our annuity of $15,000. The Litera-
ry Board offered us |40,000 on that pledge, to be repaid at five
instalments, commencing at the end of the third year from the
date of the loan, and interest to be regularly paid in the mean-
time. We endeavored to obtain permission to draw for only
|15,000 at first, and for |3,000 monthly afterwards, to avoid the
payment of dead interest. This they declined, as bound them-
selves to keep the whole of their capital always in a course of
VOL. VII. 11
162 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
fructification. We then requested a postponement of the iistal
ments to the fourth instead of the third year, with an additional
loan of the further sum of $20,000, authorized by the law. To the
postponement they acceded, and we are assured they will to the
further loan. To explain to them the urgency of this additional
year's postponement, a paper was laid before them of which I
enclose you a copy, and on which you are now acting. Should
the legislature not help us to the 093,600 there noted, the result
will be that at the end of the next year all the buildings will be
completed, (the library excepted,) and will then remain unoccu-
pied five years longer, until our funds shall be free for the en-
gagements of professors. Should they, on the other hand, give
this aid, our funds will be free, at the beginning of the next year,
and will enable us to take measures for procuring professors in
the course of that summer, and to open the University. We
were all of opinion that we ought to complete the buildings for
the ten professors contemplated, as well as accommodations for
the students, before opening the institution; for were we to stop
at any point short of the full establishment, and open partially,
as our funds would thenceforward be absorbed by the professors'
salaries, we should never be able to advance a step further, nor
to cover the whole field of science contemplated by the law, and
made the object of our care and duty. We thought it better,
therefore, to risk a delay of eight years for a perfect establish-
ment, than to begin earlier and go on forever with a defective
one ; and we suppose it impossible that either the legislature, or
their constituents, should not consider an immediate commence-
ment as worth the sum necessary to procure it. You will ob-
serve that in the estimate enclosed, no account is taken of our
subscription monies. They are, in fact, too uncertain in their
collection to found any necessary contracts ; and we thought it
better therefore to reserve them as a contingent fund, and a re-
source to cover miscalculations and accidents.
Another subject on this, as on former occasions, gave us em-
barrassment. You may have heard of the hue and cry raised
from the different pulpits on our appointment of Dr. Cooper,
COEEESPONDENCE. 163
whom they charge with Unitarianism as boldly as if they knew
the fact, and as presumptuously as if it were a crime, and one
for which, like Servetus, he should be burned ; and perhaps yen
may have seen the particular attack made on him in the Evan-
gelical magazine. For myself I was not disposed to regard the
denunciations of these satellites of religious inquisition ; but our
colleagues, better judges of popular feeling, thought that they
were not to be altogether neglected ; and that it might be better
to relieve Dr. Cooper, ourselves and the institution from this
crusade. I had received a letter from him expressing his uneasi-
ness, not only for himself, but lest this persecution should become
embarrassing to the visitors, and injurious to the institution ; with
an offer to resign, if we had the same apprehensions. The Vis-
itors, therefore, desired the committee of Superintendence to
place him at freedom on this subject, and to arrange with him
a suitable indemnification. I wrote accordingly in answer to
his, and a meeting of trustees of the college at Columbia hap-
pening to take place soon after his receipt of my letter, they
resolved unanimously that it should be proposed to, and urged on
then- legislature, to establish a professorship of Geology and Min-
eralogy, or a professorship of law, with a salary of f 1,000 a year
to be given him, in addition to that of chemistry, which is
$2,000 a year, and to purchase his collection of minerals ; and
they have no doubt of the legislature's compliance. On the sub-
ject of indemnification, he is contented with the balance of the
f 1,500 we had before agreed to give him, and which he says
will not more than cover his actual losses of time and expense ;
he adds, " it is right I should acknowledge the liberality of your
board with thanks. I regret the storm that has been raised on
my account ; for it has separated me from many fond hopes and
wishes. Whatever my religious creed may be, and perhaps I do
not exactly know it myself, it is pleasure to reflect that my con-
duct has not brought, and is not likely to bring, discredit to my
friends. Wherever I have been, it has been my good fortune to
meet with, or to make ardent and affectionate friends. I feci
persuaded I should have met with the same lot in Yirginia had it
164 JEFFEESON'S WOEKS.
been my chance to have settled there, as I had hoped and ex-
pected, for I think my course of conduct is sufficiently habitual
to count on its effects."
I do sincerely lament that untoward circumstances have brought
on us the irreparable loss of this professor, whom I have looked
to as the corner-stone of our edifice. I know no one who could
have aided us so much in forming the future regulations for our
infant institution ; and although we may perhaps obtain from
Europe equivalents in science, they can never replace the ad-
vantages of his experience, his knowledge of the character, habits
and manners of our country, his identification with its senti-
ments and principles, and high reputation he has obtained in it
generally.
In the hope of meeting you at our fall visitation, and that you
will do me the favor of making this your head quarters, and of
coming the day before, at least, that we may prepare our busi-
ness at ease, I tender you the assurance of my great esteem and
respect.
TO WILLrAM SHORT.
MoNTiOELLO, August 4, 182C.
Dear Sir, — I owe you a letter for your favor of June the
29th, which was received in due time ; and there being no sub-
ject of the day, of particular interest, I will make this a supple-
ment to mine of April the 13th. My aim in that was, to justify
the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers,
which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor.
For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies,
the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers fa-
ther on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and
theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter
ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind,
that he was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications
of his actions and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the pos-
ulate in my letter asked only what is granted in reading every
CORRESPONDENCE. Ig5
other historian. When Livy and Siculus, for example, tell us
things which coincide with our experience of the order of na-
ture, we credit them on their word, and place their narrations
among the records of credible history. But when they tell us
of calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other things
against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not belong-
ing to history. In like manner, when an historian, speaking of
a character well known and established on satisfactory testimony,
imputes to it things incompatible with that character, we reject
them without hesitation, and assent to that only of which we
have better evidence. Had Plutarch informed us that Cassar and
Cicero passed their whole lives in religious exercises, and absti-
nence from the affairs of the world, we should reject what was
so inconsistent with their established characters, still crediting
what he relates in conformity with our ideas of them. So again,
the superlative wisdom of Socrates is testified by all antiquity,
and placed on ground not to be questioned. When, therefore,
Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on
words, and sophisms as a school boy would be ashamed of, we
conclude they were the whimsies of Plato's own foggy brain, and
acquit Socrates of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking
of Plato, I will add, that no writer, ancient or modern, has be-
wildered the world with more ignus fatui, than this renowned
philosopher, in Ethics, in Politics, and Physics. In the latter, to
specify a single example, compare his views of the animal econ-
omy, in his Timaeus, with those of Mrs. Bryan in her Conversa-
tions on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized phi-
losopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But
Plato's visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mys-
tical theology, and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian
saint. It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to
throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified. But
to return from this parenthesis.) I say, that this free exercise of
reason is all } ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus.
We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct
descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things
166 JEFFERSOiT'S WOEKS.
impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications. Intep^
mixed with these, again, are subUme ideas of the Supreme Being,
aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morahty and benevolence,
sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence and simplicity of
manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and
honors, with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not
been surpassed. These could not be inventions of the grovelling
authors who relate them. They are far beyond the powers of
their feeble minds. They show that there was a character, the
subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above
all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. Can we
be at a loss in separating such materials, and ascribing each to
its genuine author ? The difference is obvious to the eye and to
the understanding, and we may read as we ru;i to each his part ;
and I will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have done, will
undertake to winnow this grain from the chaff, will find it
not to require a moment's consideration. The parts fall asunder
of themselves, as would those of an image of metal and clay.
There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection,
which we may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but
claiming indulgence from the circumstances under which he
acted. His object was the reformation of some articles in the
religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses. That sect had pre-
sented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific charac-
ter, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus, taking for
his type the best qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom,
justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of
these, but in infinite perfection, to the Supreme Being, and
formed him really worthy of their adoration. Moses had either
not believed in a future state of existence, or had not thought it
essential to be explicitly taught to his people. Jesus inculcated
that doctrine with emphasis and precision. Moses had bound
the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries, and observances,
of no effect towards producing the social utilities which consti-
tute the essence of virtue ; Jesus exposed their futility and insig-
nificance. The one instilled into his people the most anti-social
CORRESPONDENCE. 167
spi-iit toward other nations ; the other preached philanthroi)y and
universal charity and benevolence. The office of reformer of
the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus had to
walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion ; and a step
to right or left might place him within the grasp of the priests
of the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and remorse-
less as the being whom they represented as the family God of
Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel.
They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the
web of the law. He was justifiable, therefore, in avoiding
these by evasions, by sophisms, by misconstructions and misap-
plications of scraps of the prophets, and in defending himself
with these their own weapons, as sufficient, ad homines, at least.
That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the
son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the
writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that
he might conscientiously believe himself inspired from above,
is very possible. The whole religion of the Jew, inculcated on
him from his infancy, was founded in the belief of divine mspir-
ation. The fumes of the most disorded imaginations were re-
corded in then- religious code, as special communications of the
Deity ; and as it could not but happen that, in the com-se of ages,
events would now and then turn up to which some of these
vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of allegor-
ies, figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not
only preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times,
but are the foundation of much of the religions of those who
have schismatised from them. Elevated by the enthusiasm of
a warm and pure heart, conscious of the high strains of an elo-
quence which had not been taught him, he might readily mis-
take the coruscations of his own fine genius for inspirations of
an higher order. This belief carried, therefore, no more personal
imputation, than the belief of Socrates, that himself was under
the care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon. And how
many of our wisest men still believe in the reaUty of these in-
spirations, while ^rfectly sane on all other subjects. Excusing,
168 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
therefore, on these considerations, those passages in the gos-
pels which seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing
to him what alone is consistent with the great and pure charac-
ter of which the same writings furnish proofs, and to their proper
authors their own trivialities and imbecilities, I think myself
authorized to conclude the purity and distinction of his charac-
ter, in opposition to the impostures which those authors would
fix upon him ; and that the postulate of my former letter is no
more than is granted in all other historical works.
Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been
much pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and
has given some valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes
to do, I hope, much good in hi» new country ; the public in-
struction there, as I understand, being within the department
destined for him. He is not without dissatisfaction, and reason-
able dissatisfaction too, with the piracies of Baltimore ; but his
justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure, distinguish be-
tween the iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound principles
of our country at large, and of our government especially. From
many conversations with him, I hope he sees, and will promote in
his new situation, the advantages of a cordial fraternization among
all the American nations, and the importance of their coalesc-
ing in an American system of policy, totally independent of
and unconnected with that of Europe. The day is not distant,
when we may formally require a meridian of partition through
the ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither
side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an
American on the other ; and when, during the rage of the eternal
wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our regions,
shall lie down together in peace. The excess of population in
Europe, and want of room, render war, in their opinion, neces-
sary to keep down that excess of numbers. Here, room is abun-
dant, population scanty, and peace the necessary means for pro-
ducing men, to whom the redundant soil is offering the means
of life and happiness. The principles of society there and here,
thenj are radically different, and I hope no American patriot will
CORRESPONDENCE. 169
ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in the seas
and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary
contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun,. I am
earnest for an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe,
assigning them the task of keeping down the piracies of their
seas and the cannibalisms of the African coasts, and to us, the
suppression of the same enormities within our seas ; and for this
purpose, I should rejoice to see the fleets of Brazil and the United
States riding together as brethren of the same family, and pur-
suing the same object. And indeed it would be of happy augury
to begin at once this concert of action here, on the invitation of
either to the other government, while the way might be ^jrepar-
ing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing
naval collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
** ** *** **#
Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and re-
spect for you.
TO DOCTOR COOPEB.
MoNTiCELLO, August 14, 1820.
Deak Sib, — Yours of the 24th ult. was received in due time,
and I shall rejoice indeed if Mr. Elliot and Mr. Nulty are joined
to you in the institution at Columbia, which now becomes of
immediate interest to me. Mr. Stack has given notice to his
first class that he shall dismiss them on the 10th of the next
month, and his mathematical assistant also at the same time,
being determined to take only small boys in future. My grand-
son, Eppes, is of the first class ; and I have proposed to his fa-
ther to send him to Columbia, rather than anywhere northwardly.
I am obliged, therefore, to ask of you by what day he ought to
be there, so as to be at the commencement of what they call a
session, and to be so good as to do this by the first mail, as I
shall set out to Bedford within about a fortnight. He is so far ad-
vanced in Greek and Latin that he will be able to pursue them by
himself hereafter ; and being between eighteen and nineteen
170 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
years of age he has no time to lose. I propose that he shall com-
mence immediately with the mathematics and natural philosophy
to be followed by astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy, botany,
natural history. It would be time lost for him to attend profess-
ors of ethics, metaphysics, logic, &c. The first of these may
be as well acquired in the closet as from living lectures ; and
supposing the two last to mean the science of mind, the simple
reading of Locke, Tracy, and Stewart, will give him as much
in that branch as is real science. A relation of his (Mr. Ba-
ker) and classmate will go with him.
I hope and believe you are mistaken in supposing the reign of
fanaticism to be on the advance. I think it certainly declining.
It was first excited artificially by the sovereigns of Europe as an
engine of opposition to Bonaparte and to France. It rose to a
great height there, and became indeed a powerful engine of
loyalism, and of support to their governments. But that loyal-
ism is giving way to very different dispositions, and its prompter
fanaticism, is vanishing with it. In the meantime it had been
wafted across the Atlantic, and chiefly from England, with their
other fashions, but it is here also on the wane. The ambitious sect
of Presbyterians indeed, the Loyalists of our country, spare
no pains to keep it up. But their views of ascendency over
all other sects in the United States seem to excite alarm in all,
and to unite them as against a common and threatening enemy.
And although the Unitarianism they impute to you is heterodoxy
with all of them, I suspect the other sects will admit it to their
alliance in order to strengthen the phalanx of opposition against
the enterprises of their more aspiring antagonists. Although
spiritualism is most prevalent with all these sects, yet with none
of them, I presume, is materialism declared heretical. Mr. Locke,
on whose authority they often plume themselves, openly main-
tained the materialism of the soul ; and charged with blasphemy
those who denied that it was in the power of an Almighty Crea-
tor to endow with the faculty of thought any composition of
matter he might think fit. The fathers of the church of the
three first centuries generally, if not universally, were material-
COERESPONDENOE. 171
ists, extending it even to the Creator himself ; nor indeed do I
know exactly * in what age of the christian church the heresy
of spiritualism was introduced. Huet, in his commentai'ies on
Origen,t says, " Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Origenem,
reapse corporalis est, sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum in-
corporeus."J St. Macari,§ as speaking of angels says, " quam
vis enim suhtilia sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secun-
dum tenuitatem naturae eorum corpora sunt tenuia, quemadmodum
et hoc corpus in substantia sua crassum et solidum est."|| St. Justin
martyr says expressly "to 6eiov <fOfiev eivai aauuarov, ovK Se eariv aauaarov."
Tertullian's words are, " quid euim Deus nisi corpus ?" and
again, " quis autem negabit Deuni esse corpus ? et si deus spiritus,
spiritus etiam corpus est sui generis, in sua effigie," and that the
soul is matter he adduces the following tangible proof : "in ipso
ultimo voluptatis aestu, quo genitale vii'us expellitur, nonne ali-
quid de anima sentimus exire ?"![ The holy father thus assert-
ing, and, as it would seem, from his own feelings, that the sperm
infused into the female matrix deposits there the matter and
germ of both soul and body, conjunctim, of the new foetus. Al-
though I do not pretend to be familiar with these fathers, and
give the preceding quotations at second hand, yet I learn from
authors whom I respect, that not only those I have named, but
St. Augustin,** St. Basil, Lactantius, Tatian, Athenagoras, and
others, concurred in ■ the materiality of the soul. Our modern
doctors would hardly ventm-e or wish to condemn theii' fathers as
heretics, the main pillars of theii- fabric resting on their shoulders.
In the consultations of the visitors of the university on the sub-
ject of releasing you from yom- engagement with us, although
one or two members seemed alarmed at this cry of " fire" from
the Presbyterian pulpits, yet the real ground of our decision was
that our funds were in fact hypotheticated for five or six years
to redeem the loan we had reluctantly made ; and although we
* I believe by Athenasius and the council of !Kicea.
f Ocellua de d'Argens, p. 9t. J Enfield, vi. 3. § lb. 105.
i Timseus, l"?. Enfield, vi. 8. T Hist, des Saints, 2 c. 4 p. 212, 215.
** Ocellus, 90.
172 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
hoped and trusted that the ensuing legislature would remit the
debt and liberate our funds, yet it was not just, on this possi-
bility, to stand in the way of your looking out for a more certain
provision. The completing all our buildings for professors and
students by the autumn of the ensuing year, is now secured by
sufficient contracts, and our confidence is most strong that nei-
ther the State nor their legislature will bear to see those buildings
shut up for five or six years, when they have the money in hand,
■ind actually appropriated to the object of education, which would
open their doors at once for the reception of their sons, now
waiting and calling aloud for that institution. The legislature
meets on the 1st Monday of December, and before Christmas we
shall know what are their intentions. If such as we expect, we
shall then immediately take measures to engage our professors
and bring them into place the ensuing autumn or early winter.
My hope is that you will be able and willing to keep yourself
uncommitted, to take your place among them about that time ;
and I can assure you there is not a voice among us which will
not be cordially given for it. I think, too, I may add, that if the
Presbyterian opposition should not die by that time, it will be
directed at once against the whole institution, and not amuse it-
self with nibbling at a single object. It did that only because
there was no other, and they might think it politic to mask their
designs on the body of the fortress, under the of a bat-
tery against a single bastion. I will not despair then of the
avail of your services in an establishment which I contemplate
as the future bulwark of the human mind in this hemisphere.
God bless you and preserve you multos annos. -
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLo, August 15, 1820.
I am a great defaulter, my dear Sir, jn our correspondence,
but prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and when it
does, matters of business imperiously press their claims. I am
CORRESPONDENCE. 173
getting tetter however, slowly, swelled legs being now the only
serious symptom, and these, I believe, proceed from extreme de-
bility. I can walk but little ; but I ride six or eight miles a day
without fatigue ; and within a few days, I shall endeavor to visit
my other home, after a twelvemonth's absence from it. Our
University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise, and
the oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and
it is becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have
lately had an opportunity of reading a critique on this institution
in yom" North American Rteview of January last, having been
not without anxiety to see what that able work would say of
us ; and I was relieved on finding in it much coincidence of
opinion, and even where criticisms were indulged, I found they
would have been obviated had the developments of our plan
been fuller. But these were restrained by the character of the
paper reviewed, being merely a report of outlines, not a detailed
treatise, and addressed to a legislative body, not to a learned
academy. For example, as an inducement to introduce the
Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it would reward
amply the few weeks of attention which alone would be requisite
for its attainment ; leaving both term and degree under an inde-
finite expression, because I know that not much time is neces-
sary to attain it to an useful degree, sufficient to give such in-
struction in the etymologies of our language as may satisfy or-
dinai-y students, while more time would be requisite for those
who should propose to attain a critical knowledge of it. In a
letter which I had occasion to write to Mi-. Crofts, who sent you,
I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his ti-eatise on the English
and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dic-
tionary he meditated, I went into explanations with him of an
easy process for simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and
lessening the terrors and difficulties presented by its rude alpha-
bet, and unformed orthography. But this is a subject beyond
the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond the bounds of a report
to the legislatiu-e. Mi. Crofts died, I believe, before any pro-
gress was made in the work he had projected.
174 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on oiu
placing military and naval architecture in the department of pure
mathematics. Military architecture embraces fortification and
fieldworks, which, with their bastions, curtains, hornworks, re-
doubts, (fcc, are based on a technical combination of lines and
angles. These are adapted to offence and defence, with and
against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades, &c. But lines and
angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch of pure
mathematics ; and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other
projectiles, the necessary appendages of military works, although
no part of their architecture, belong to the conic sections, a
branch of transcendental geometry. Diderot and D'Alembert,
therefore, in their Arbor scientice, have placed military archi-
tecture in the department of elementary geometry. Naval archi-
tecture teaches the best form and construction of vessels; for
which best form it has recom'se to the question of the solid of
least resistance ; a problem of transcendental geometry. And its
appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch, as in the pre-
ceding case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of the
water on the rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it
may be placed in the department of mechanics, as Diderot and
D'Alembert have done ; but belonging quite as much to geom-
etry,, and allied in its military character to military architecture,
it simj)lified our plan to place both under the same head. These
views are so obvious, that I am sure they would have required
but a second thought, to reconcile the reviewer to their location
under the head of pure mathematics. For this word location,
see Bailey, Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, «fec. But if dictionaries
are to be the arbiters of language, in which of them shall we find
neologism. No matter. It is a good word, well sounding, ob-
vious, and expresses an idea, which would otherwise require cir-
cumlocution. The reviewer was justifiable, therefore, in using
it ; although he noted at the same time, as unauthoritative, cen-
trality, grade, sparse ; all which have been long used in common
speech and writing. I am a friend to neology. It is the only
way to give to a language copiousness and euphony. Without
COERESPONDENOE. I75
it we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred or of Ul-
philas ; and held to their state of science also : for I am sure they
had no words which could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen,
cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism, electricity, hyaline, and thou-
sands of others expressing ideas not then existing, nor of possible
communication in the state of their language. What a language
has the French become since the date of their revolution, by the
free introduction of new words ! The most copious and eloquent
in the living world ; and equal to the Greek, had not that been
regularly modifiable almost ad infinitum. Theii' rule was, that
whenever their language furnished or adopted a root, all its
branches, in every part of speech, were legitimated by giving
them their appropriate terminations. ASeKtfo?, adeltfrj, aSeXq^tdwi-,
«(5fi(j/0T);ff, o(5fAgri.5if , adelrfidug, aSsi-cpixog, aSeXqji'Qai, aSf).(ptyoi;. And
this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted
the ad]ective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fra-
ternity, fraternation, fraternisation, fraternism, to fraternate,
fraternise, fraternally. And give the word neologism to our
language, as a root, and it should give us its fellow substantives,
neology, neologist, neologisation ; its adjectives, neologous, neolo-
gical, neologistical ; its verb, neologise ; and adverb, neologically.
Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated
by usage. Society is the workshop in which new ones are
elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if ill formed,
it is rejected in society ; if well formed, adopted, and after due
time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if, in this
process of sound neologisation, our trans-Atlantic brethren shall
not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after the lonians, a
second example of a colonial dialect improving on its primitive.
But enough of criticism : let me turn to your puzzling letter of
May the 12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &c. Its crowd of scep-
ticisms kept mo. from sleep. I read it, and laid it down ; read it,
and laid it down, again and again ; and to give rest to my mind,
I was obliged to recur ultimately to my habitual anodyne, " I feel,
therefore I exist." I feel bodies which are not myself: there are
other existences then. I call them matter. I feel them chang-
176 JEFFEKSON'S WOKKS.
ing place. This gives me motion. Where there is an absence
of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial space. On the
basis of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect the fabric
of all the certainties we can have or need. I can conceive thought
to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed for
that purpose by its creator, as well as that attraction is an action
of matter, or magnetism, of loadstone. When he who denies to
the Creator the power of endowing matter with the mode of ac-
tion called thinking, shall show how he could endow the sun
with the mode of action called attraction, which reins the planets
in the track of their orbits, or how an absence of matter can have
a will, and by that will put matter into motion, then the Materi-
alist may be lawfully required to explain the process by which
matter exercises the faculty of thinking. When once we quit
the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial
existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul,
angels, God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that
there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise :
but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by the
Lockes, the Tracys, and the Stewarts. At what age* of the
Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, or masked athe-
ism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a heresy it certainly
is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He told us, indeed, that " God
is a spirit," but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor said that
it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, of the three
first centuries, held it to be matter, light and thin indeed, an
etherial gas ; but still matter. Origen says, " Deus se ipse cor-
poralis est ; sed graviorum tantum corporum ratione, incorporeus."
TertuUian, " quid enim deus nisi corpus ?" And again, " quis
negabit deum esse corpus ? Etsi deus spiritus, spiritus etiam
corpus est, sui generis in sua eifigie." St. Justin Martyr, " ro
•i^EiOv cpufisy Biviti ugwfxuiop' 6« ^OTt ugbi^ajov — enetdrj ds rojutj xouTS^adai
ino Tivog ta xg(xTetg&ai, TtfiiaizSQOi' sqi dtu raro k«A8|U6»' uvtop agtM/Autoy."
And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, " quamvis enim sub-
tilia sint, tamen in substantia, forma et figurS, secundum tenui-
* That of Athanasius and the Coianoil of Nicsea, anno. 324.
OOEEESPONDENOE. 177
tatem naturae eorum, corpora sunt tenuia." And St. Austin,
St. Basil, Lactantius, Tatian, Athenagoras and others, with whose
writings I pretend not a familiarity, are said by those who are
better acquainted with them, to deliver the same doctrine, (En-
field X. 3, 1.) Tiurn to your Ocellus d'Argens, 97, 105, and to
his Timaeus 17, for these quotations. In England, these Imma-
terialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2, when the
writ de hcuretico comhurendo was abolished ; and here imtil the
Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies
being now done away with us, these schismatists are merely
atheists, differing from the material atheist only in their belief,
that " nothing made something," and from the material deist,
who believes that matter alone can operate on matter.
Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses,
I rid myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in spe-
culations hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and
disquiet the mind. A single sense may indeed be sometimes
deceived, but rarely ; and never all our senses together, with their
faculty of reasoning. They evidence realities, and there are
enough of these for all the purposes of life, without plunging into
the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied,
and sufiiciently occupied with the things which are, without tor-
menting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be,
but of which I have no evidence. I am sure that I reallj'' know
many, many things, and none more surely than that I love you
with all my heart, and pray for the continuance of youi- life until
you shall be tired of it yourself.
TO MR. JABVIS.
MoNTiOELLO, September 28, 1820.
I thank you. Sir, for the copy of your Republican which you
have been so kind as to send me, and I should have acknowl-
edged it sooner but that I am just returned home after a long
absence. I have not yet had time to read it seriously, but in
VOL. VII. 12
178 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
looking over it cursorily I see much in it to approve, and shall be
glad if it shall lead our youth to the practice of thinking on such
subjects and for themselves. That it will have this tendency
may be expected, and for that reason I feel an urgency to note
what I deem an error in it, the more requiring notice as your
opinion is strengthened by that of many others. You seem, in
pages 84 and 148, to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters
of all constitutional questions ; a very dangerous doctrine indeed,
and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligar-
chy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so.
They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power,
and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is " boni judicis
est ampliare jurisdictionem," and their power the more danger-
ous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other
functionaries are, to the elective control. The constitution has
erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands
confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members
would become despots. It has more wisely made all the depart-
ments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves. If the leg-
islature fails to pass laws for a census, for paying the judges and
other officers of government, for establishing a militia, for nat-
uralization as prescribed by the constitution, or if they fail to
meet in congress, the judges cannot issue their mandamus to
them ; if the President fails to supply the place of a judge, to
appoint other civil or military officers, to issue requisite commis-
sions, the judges cannot force him. They can issue their man-
damus or distringas to no executive or legislative officer to en-
force the fulfflment of their official duties, any more than the
president or legislature may issue orders to the judges or their
officers. Betrayed by English example, and unaware, as it should
seem, of the control of our constitution in this particular, they
have at times overstepped their limit by undertaking to command
executive officers in the discharge of their executive duties ; but
the constitution, m keeping three departments distinct and inde-
pendent, restrains the authority of the judges to judiciary organs,
as it does the executive and legislative to executive and legisla-
CORRESPONDENCE. I79
tive organs. The judges certainly have more frequent occasion
to act on constitutional questions, because the laws of meum and
tuum and of criminal action, forming the great mass of the sys-
tem of law, constitute their particular department. When the
legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they
are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The ex-
emption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I
Icnow no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society
but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened
enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion,
the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their dis-
cretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of
constitutional power. Pardon me, Sir, for this difterence of
opinion. My personal interest in such questions is entirely ex-
tinct, but not my wishes for the longest possible continuance of
our government on its pure principles ; if the three powers main-
tain their mutual independence on each other it may last long,
but not so if either can assume the authorities of the other. I ask
your candid re-consideration of this subject, and am sufficiently
3ure you will form a candid conclusion. Accept the assurance
of my great respect.
TO MB, PINCKJIET.
MoNTicELLO, September 80, 1820.
Deak Sm, — An absence of some time from home has occasioned
me to be thus late in acknowledging the receipt of your favor
of the 6th, and I see in it with pleasure evidences of your con-
tinued health and application to business. It is now, I believe,
about twenty years since I had the pleasure of seeing you, and
we are apt, in such cases, to lose sight of time, and to conceive
that our friends remain stationary at the same point of health and
vigor as when we last saw them. So I perceive by your letter
you think with respect to myself, but twenty years added to
fifty-seven make quite a different man. To threescore and seven-
teen add two years of prostrate health, and you have the old,
ISO JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
infirm, and nerveless body I now am, unable to write but with
pain, and unwilling to think without necessity. In this state 1
leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and
resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take
care when young. I read but one newspaper and that of my
own State, and more for its advertisements than its news. I
have not read a speech in Congress for some years. I have
heard, indeed, of the questions of the tariff and Missouri, and
formed primi facie opinions on them, but without investigation.
As to the tariff, I should say put down all banks, admit none but
a metallic circulation, that will take its proper level with the hke
circulation in other countries, and then our manufacturers may
work in fair competition with those of other countries, and the
import duties which the government may lay for the purposes of
revenue will so far place them above equal competition. The
Missouri question is a mere party trick. The leaders of federal-
ism, defeated in their schemes of obtaining power by rallying
partisans to the principle of monarchism, a principle of personal
not of local division, have changed their tack, and thrown out
another barrel to the whale. They are taking advantage of the
virtuous feelings of the people to effect a division of parties by a
geographical line ; they expect that this will ensure them, on
local principles, the majority they could never obtain on princi-
ples of federalism ; but they are still putting their shoulder to the
wrong wheel ; they are wasting Jeremiads on the miseries of
slavery, as if we were advocates for it. Sincerity in their declamar
tions should direct their efforts to the true point of difficulty, and
unite their counsels with ours in devising some reasonable and
practicable plan of getting rid of it. Some of these leaders, if
they could attain the power, their ambition would rather use it
to keep the Union together, but others have ever had in view its
separation. If they push it to that, they will find the line of
separation very different from their 36° of latitude, and as man-
ufacturing and navigating States, they will have quarrelled with
their bread and butter, and I fear not that after a little trial they
will think better of it, and return to the embraces of their nat-
CORRESPONDENOE 181
oral and best friends. But this scheme of party I leave to those
who are to live under its consequences. We who have gone be-
fore have performed an honest duty, by putting in the power of
our successors a state of happiness which no nation ever before
had within their choice. If that choice is to throw it away, the
dead will have neither the power nor the right to control them.
I must hope, nevertheless, that the mass of our honest and well-
meaning brethren of the other States, will discover the use which
designing leaders are making of their best feelings, and will see
the precipice to which they are lead, before they take the fatal
leap. God grant it, and to you health and happiness.
ES^.
MoNTiCELLO, October 20, 1820.
Deak Sir, — In yom: favor of May 3d, which I have now to
acknowldge, you so kindly proffered your attentions to any little
matters I might have on that side of the water, that I take the
liberty of availing myself of this proof of your goodness so far as
to request you to put the enclosed catalogue in the hands of some
hottest bookseller of London, who will procure and forward the
books to me, with care and good faith. They should be packed
in a cheap trunk, and not put on ship-board until April, as they
would be liable to damage on a winter passage. I ask an honest
correspondent in that line, because, when we begin to import for
the library of our Universary, we shall need one worthy of entire
confidence.
I send this letter open to my correspondent in Richmond,
Captain Bernard Peyton, with a request that he will put into it a
bill of exchange on London of £40 sterling, which of course,
therefore, I cannot describe to you by naming drawer and drawee.
He will also forward, by other convej^ance, the duplicate and
triplicate as usual. This sum would more than cover the cost
of the books written for, according to their prices stated in print-
ed catalogues ; but as books have risen with other things in price.
182 JEFFERSON'S WOEXS.
I have enlarged the printed amount by about 15 per cent, to
cover any rise. Still, should it be insufficient, the bookseller is
requested to dock the catalogue to the amount of the remittance.
I have no news to give you ; for I have none but from the
newspapers, and believing little of that myself, it would be an
unworthy present to my friends. But the important news
hes now on your side of the Atlantic. England, in throes
from a trifle, as it would seem, but that trifle the symptom of
an iiTemediable disease proceeding from a long course of ex-
haustion by efforts and burthens beyond her natural strength ;
France agonizing between royalists and constitutionalists ; the
other States of Europe pressing on to revolution and the rights
of man, and the colossal powers of Russia and Austria mar-
shalled against them. These are more than specks of hurri-
cane in the horizon of the world. You, who are young, may
live to see its issue ; the beginning only is for my time. Nor is
our side of the water entirely untroubled, the boisterous sea of
liberty is never without a wave. A hideous evil, the magnitude
of which is seen, and at a distance only, by the one party, and
more sorely felt and sincerely deplored by the other, from the
difiiculty of the cure, divides us at this moment too angrily.
The attempt by one party to prohibit willing States from sharing
the evil, is thought by the other to render desperate, by accumu-
lation, the hope of its final eradication. If a little time, however,
is given to both parties to cool, and to dispel their visionary
fears, they will see that concurring in sentiment as to the evil,
moral and political, the duty and interest of both is to concur also
in divining a practicable process of cure. Should time not be
given, and the schism be pushed to separation, it will be for a
short term only ; two or three years trial will bring them bac^,
like quarrelling lovers to renewed embraces, and increased affec-
tions. The experiment of separation would soon prove to both
that they had mutually miscalculated their best interests. And
even were the parties in Congress to secede in a passion, the so-
berer people would call a convention and cement again the sev-
erance attempted by the insanity of their functionaries. With
OOKEESPONDENOE. 183
this consoling view, my greatest grief -would be for the fatal ef-
fect of such an event on the hopes and happiness of the world.
We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government,
so modelled as to rest continually on the will of the whole socie-
ty, is a practicable government. Were we to break to pieces,
it would damp the hopes and the efforts of the good, and give
triumph to those of the bad through the whole enslaved world.
As members, therefore, of the universal society of mankind, and
standing in high and responsible relation with them, it is our
sacred duty to suppress passion among ourselves, and not to blast
the confidence we have inspired of proof that a government of
reason is better than one of force. This letter is not of facts but
of opinions, as you will observe ; and although the converse is
generally the most acceptable, I do not know that, in your situa-
tion, the opinions of your countrymen may not be as desirable to
be known to you as facts. They constitute, indeed, moral facts,
as important as physical ones to the attention of the public func-
tionary. Wishing you a long career to the services you may
render your country, and that it may be a career of happiness
and prosperity to yourself, I salute you with affectionate attach-
ment and respect.
TO MH. COKKEA.
MoNTiCELLo, October 24, 1820.
Your kind letter, dear Sir, of October 12th, was handed to me
by Dr. Cooper, and was the first correction of an erroneous be-
lief that you had long since left our shores. Such had been Colo-
nel Randolph's opinion, and his had governed mine. I received
your adieu with feelings of sincere regret at the loss we were to
sustain, and particularly of those friendly visits by which you
had made me so happy. I shall feel, too, the want of your
counsel and approbation in what we are doing and have yet to
do in our University, the last of my mortal cares, and the last
service I can render my country. But turning from myself,
throwmg f.'gotism behind me, and looking to your happiness, it
184 JEPFEKSON'S "WOEKS.
is a duty and consolation of friendship to consider that that may
be promoted by your return to your own country. There I hope
you will receive the honors and rewards you merit, and which
may make the rest of your life easy and happy ; there too you
will render precious services by promoting the science of your
country, and blessing its future generations with the advantages
that bestows. Nor even there shall we lose all the benefits of your
friendship ; for this motive, as well as the love of your own
country, will be an incitement to promote that intimate harmony
between our two nations which is so much the interest of both.
Nothing is so important as that America shall separate herself
from the systems of Europe, and establish one of her own. Our
circumstances, our pursuits, our interests, are distinct, the princi-
ples of our policy should be so also. All entanglements with
that quarter of the globe should be avoided if we mean that
peace and justice shall be the polar stars of the American socie-
ties. I had written a letter to a friend while you were here, in
a part of which these sentiments were expressed, and I had
made an extract from it to put into your hands, as containing my
creed on that subject. You had left us, however, in the morn-
ing earlier than I had been aware ; still I enclose it to you, be-
cause it would be a leading principle with me, had I longer to
live. During six and thirty years that I have been in situations
to attend to the conduct and characters of foreign nations, I have
found the government of Portugal the most just, inoffensive and
unambitious of any one with which we had concern, without a
single exception. I am sure that this is the character of ours
also. Two such nations can never wish to quarrel with each oth-
er. Subordinate officers may be negligent, may have their pas-
sions and partialities, and be criminally remiss in preventing the
enterprises of the lawless banditti who are to be found in every
seaport of every country. The late piratical depredations which
your commerce has suffered as well as ours, and that of other
nations, seem to have been committed by renegado rovers of seve-
ral nations, French, English, American, which they as well as
we have not been careful enough to suppress. I hope our Con-
CORRESPONDENCE. , 185
gress now about to meet will strengthen the measures of suppress-
ion. Of their disposition to do it there can be no doubt ; for all
men of moral principle must be shocked at these atrocities. 1
had repeated conversations on this subject with the President,
while at his seat in this neighborhood. No man can abhor these
enormities more deeply. I trust it will not have been in the
power of abandoned rovers, nor yet of negligent functionaries, to
disturb the harmony of two nations so much disposed to mutual
friendship, and interested in it. To this, my dear friend, you
can be mainly instrumental, and I know your patriotism and
philanthropy too well to doubt your best efforts to cement us.
In these I pray for your success, and that heaven may long pre-
serve you in- health and prosperity to do all the good to mankind
to which your enlightened and benevolent mind disposes you.
Of the continuance of my affectionate friendship, with that of
my life, and of its fervent wishes for your happiness, accept my
sincere assurance.
TO THE REVEREND JARED SPARKS.
MoNTicELLo, November 4, 1820.
Sir, — ^Your favor of September 18th is just received, with the
book accompanying it. Its delay was owing to that of the box
of books from Mr. Guegan, in which it was packed. Being
just setting out on a journey I have time only to look over the
summary of contents. In this I see nothing in which I am like-
ly to differ materially from you. I hold the precepts of Jesus,
as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and
sublime which have ever been preached to man. I adhere to
the principles of the first age ; and consider all subsequent inno-
vations as corruptions of his religion, having no foundation in
what came from him. The metaphysical insanities of Athana-
sius, of Loyola, and of Calvin, are, to my understanding, mere
relapses into polytheism, differing from paganism only by being
more unintelligible. The religion of Jesus is founded in the
186 JEFFEESON'S "WORKS.
Unity of God, and this principle chiefly, gave it triumph over
the rabble of heathen gods then acknowledged. Thinking men
of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only God,
and embraced it with the pure morals which Jesus inculcated.
If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory,
can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of
public opinion, truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine
doctrines of Jesus, so long perverted by his pseudo-priests, will
dgain be restored to their origiaal purity. This reformation will
advance with the other improvements of the human mind, but
too late for me to witness it. Accept my thanks for your book,
in which I shall read with pleasure your developments of the
subject, and with them the assurance of my high respect.
TO JOSEPH 0. CABELL.
Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
Dear Sib, — ^I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to
the Governor, with a request that he would endeavor to con-
vene the Literary Board in time to lay it before the legislature
on the second day of their session. It was enclosed in a letter
which will explain itself to you. If delivered before the crowd
of other business presses on them, they may act on it immedi-
ately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly com-
binations and maneuvi'es by the enemies of the institution. I
enclose you now a paper presenting some views which may be
useful to you in conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of
what our institution is to cost, and reproaches of deceptive esti-
mates. One hundred and sixty-two thousand three hundred and
sixty-four dollars will be about the cost of the whole establish-
ment, when completed. Not an office at Washington has cost
less. The single building of the court house of Henrico has
cost nearly that ; and the massive walls of the millions of bricks
of William and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
Surely Governor Clinton's display of the gigantic efforts of
COERESPONDENOE. 187
New York towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate
the pride as well as the patriotism of our legislature, to look to
the reputation and safety of their own country, to rescue it from
the degradation of becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of
falling into the ranks of our own negroes. To that condition it
is fast sinking. We shall be in the hands of the other States,
what our indigenous predecessors were when invaded by the
science and arts of Europe. The mass of education in Virginia,
before the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her sister
colonies. What is her education now ? Where is it ? The
little we have we import, like beggars, from other States ; or
import their beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs.
And what is wanting to restore us to our station among our con-
federates ? Not more money from the people. Enough has
been raised by them, and appropriated to this very object.
It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for their
greatest good. That good requires, that while they are instruct-
ed in general, competently to the common business of life, others
should employ their genius with necessary information to the
useful arts, to inventions for saving labor and increasing our
comforts, to nourishing our health, to civil government, military
science, &c.
Would it not have a good effect for the friends of this Uni-
versity to take the lead in proposing and etfecting a practical
scheme of elementary schools ? To assume the character of the
friends, rather than the opponents of that object. The present
plan has appropriated to the primary schools forty-five thousand
dollars for three years, making one hundred and thirty-five thou-
sand dollars. I should be glad to know if this sum has educated
one hundred and thirty-five poor children ? I doubt it much.
And if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a piece for
what might have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the
literary revenue to be sixty thousand dollars, I think it demon-
strable, that this sum, equally divided between the two objects,
would amply suffice for both. One hundred counties, divided
into about twelve wards each, on an average, and a school in
188 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
each ward of perhaps ten children, would be one thousand and
two hundred schools, distributed proportionably over the surface
of the State. The inhabitants of each ward, meeting together
(as when they work on the roads), building good log houses for
their school and teacher, and contributing for his provisions, ra-
tions of pork,, beef, and corn, in the proportion each of his other
taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without feeling it ; and
those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of their own
children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the
tuition fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would
still be fed and lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten
dollars, and three hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an
average,) more or less proportioned,) would there be thirty such
paupers for every county ? I think not. The truth is, that the
want of common education with us is not from our poverty, but
from want of an orderly system. More money is now paid for
the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the whole,
if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in
New York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all ;
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the
masters ; forty established academies, with two thousand two
hundred and eighteen pupils ; and five colleges, with seven hun-
dred and eighteen students ; to which last classes of institutions
seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars have been given ;
and the whole appropriations for education estimated at two and
a half millions of dollars ! What a pigmy to this is Virginia be-
come, with a population almost equal to that of New York !
And whence this difference ? From the difference their rulers
set on the value of knowledge, and the prosperity it produces.
But still, if a pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may do. If among
fifty children in each of the six thousand schools of New York,
there are only paupers enough to employ twenty-five dollars of
public money to each school, smely among the ten children of
each of our one thousand and two hundred schools, the same
sum of twenty-five dollars to each school will teach its paupers,
(five times as much as to the same number in New York,) and
COERESPONDEITOE. 189
will amount for the whole to thirty thousand dollars a year, the
one-half only of our literary revenue.
Do then, dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take
in hand the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the
elementary schools, and none are more warmly so than myself,
lighten the difficulties of the University, and promote in every
order of men the degree of instruction proportioned to their con-
dition, and to their views in life. It will combine with the mass
of our force, a wise direction of it, which will insure to our
country its future prosperity and safety. I had formerly thought
that visitors of the school might be chosen by the county, and
charged to provide teachers for every ward, and to superintend
them. I now think it would be better for every ward to choose
its own resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a
teacher in the ward, to superintend the school, and to call meet-
ings of the ward for all purposes relating to it ; their accounts to
be settled, and wards laid off by the courts. I think ward elec-
tions better for many reasons, one of which is sufficient, that it
will keep elementary education out of the hands of fanaticising
preachers, who, in county elections, would be universally chosen,
and the predominant sect 06 the county would possess itself of
all its schools.
A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the
effect of age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with
me. I cannot, therefore, present these views, by separate letters
to each of our colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to
communicate them to Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge,
and to request them to consider this as equally meant for them.
Mr. Gordon being the local representative of the University,
and among its most zealous friends, would be a more useful
second to General Breckenridge in the House of Delegates, by
a free communication of what concerns the University, with which
he has had little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So, also,
would it be to Mr. Rives, who would be a friendly advocate. ,
Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem
and respect.
190 JEFFEKSON'S WORKS.
TO MK. MADISON.
Poplar Fouest, November 29, 1820.
Deah Sir, — The enclosed letter from our ancient friend
Tenche Coxe, came unfortunately to Monticello after I had left
it, and has had a dilatory passage to this place, where I received
it yesterday, and obey its injunction of immediate transmission
to you. We should have recognized the style even without a
signature, and although so written as to be much of it indeci-
pherable. This is a sample of the effects we may expect
from the late mischievous law vacating every four years nearly
all the executive officers of the government. It saps the consti-
tutional and salutary functions of the President, and introduces
a principle of intrigue and corruption, which will soon leaven
the mass, not only of Senators, but of citizens. It is more bane-
ful than the attempt which failed in the beginning of the gov-
ernment, to make all officers irremovable but with the consent
of the Senate. This places, every four years, all appointments
under their power, and even obliges them to act on every one
nomination. It will keep in constant excitement all the hungry
cormorants for office, render them,- as well as those in place,
sycophants to their Senators, engage these in eternal intrigue to
turn out one and put in another, in cabals to swap work ; and
make of them what all executive directories become, mere sinks
of corruption and faction. This must have been one of the mid-
night signatures of the President, when he had not time to con-
sider, or even to read the law ; and the more fatal as being irre-
pealable but with^the consent of the Senate, which will never
be obtained.
F. Gilmer has communicated to me Mr.- Correa's letter to him
of adieux to his friends here, among whom he names most af-
fectionately Mrs. Madison and yourself. No foreigner, I believe,
has ever carried with him more friendly regrets. . He was to sail
the next day (November 10) in the British packet for England, and
thence take his passage in January for Brazil. His present views
are of course liable to be affected by the events of Portugal, and
OOEKESPONDENCE. 191
the possible effects of their example on Brazil. I expect to re-
turn to Monticello about the middle of the ensuing month, and
salute you with constant affection and respect.
TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
MoNTioELLO, December 25, 1820.
Deab Sir, — On my return home after a long absence, I find
here your favor of November the 23d, with Colonel Taylor's
"Constructi«m Construed," which you have been so kind as to send
me, in the name of the author as well as yourself. Permit me,
if you please, to use the same channel for conveying to him the
thanks I render you also for this mark of attention. I shall read
it, I know, with edification, as I did his Inquiry, to which I ac-
knowledge myself indebted for many valuable ideas, and for the
correction of some errors of early opinion, never seen in a cor-
rect light until presented to me in that work. That the present
volume is equally orthodox, I know before reading it, because I
know that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, dif-
fered in any political principle of importance. Every act of his
life, and every word he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also,
as to the two Presidents, late and now in office, I know them
both to be of principles as truly republican as any men living
If there be anything amiss, therefore, in the present state of oui
affairs, as the formidable deficit lately unfolded to us indicates
I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress to their duties, to theii
unwise dissipation and waste of the public contributions. They
seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss for objects whereon
to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury. 1
had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my old
fellow laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagar-
ies, the people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy
with their Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy
•ax to supply it, will, I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
192 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
But it is not from this branch of government we have most to
fear. Taxes and short elections will keep them right. The ju-
diciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and
miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foun-
dations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our
constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special gov-
ernment to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all
things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to
forget the maxim, " boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem."
We shall see if they are bold enough to take the daring stride
their five lawyers have lately taken. If they do, then, with the
editor of our book, in his address to the pulalic, I will say, that
" against this every man should raise his voice," and more,
should uplift his arm. Who wrote this admirable address ?
Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one which
can be changed but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay
bare these wounds of our constitution, expose the decisions seria-
tim, and arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to these
bold speculators on its patience. Having found, from experience,
that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow,
they consider themselves secure for life ; they sculk from responsi-
bility to public opinion, the only remaining hold on them, under a
practice first introduced into England by Lord 'Mansfield. An
opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a majority of one,
delivered as if unanimous, and with the silent acquiescence of
lazy or timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who sophisti-
cates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. A
judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General to
Congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion seriatim
and openly, and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be en-
tered in the record. A judiciary independent of a king or ex-
ecutive alone, is a good thing ; but independence of the will of
the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.
But to return to your letter ; you ask for my opinion of the
work you send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I
have ever made a point of declining, (one or twa instances only
CORRESPONDENCE. 193
excepted.) Complimentary thanks to writers who have sent me
their works, have betrayed me sometimes before the public, with-
out my consent having beeu asked. But I am far from presum-
ing to direct the reading of my fellow citizens, who are good
enough judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I
am, also, too desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of con-
tention. Against this I am admonished by bodily decay, which
cannot be unaccompanied by coiTesponding wane of the mind.
Of this I am as yet sensible, sufficiently to be unwilling to trust
myself before the public, and when I cease to be so, I hope that
my friends will be too careful of me to draw me forth and pre-
sent me, like a Priam in armor, as a spectacle for public com-
passion. I hope our political bark will ride through all its dan-
gers ; but I can in future be but an inert passenger.
I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
TO M. DE LA FATETTE.
MoNTiuici.i.o, Di'cember 26, 1820.
It is long, indeed, my very dear friend, since I have been able
to address a letter to you. For more than two years my health
has been sj entirely prostrate, that I have, of necessity, inter-
mitted all correspondence. The dislocated wrist, too, which
perhaps you may recollect, has now become so stiff from the
effects of age, that writing is become a slow and painful opera-
tion, and scarcely ever undertaken but under the goad of imperi-
ous business. In the meantime your country has been going on
less well than I had hoped. But it will go on. The light which
has been shed on the mind of man through the civilized world,
has given it a new direction, from which no human power can
divert it. The sovereigns of Europe who are wise, or have wise
counsellors, see this, and bend to the breese which blows ; the
unwise alone stiffen and meet its inevitable crush. The volcanic
rumblings in the bowels of Europe, from north to south, seem to
V.)L. V]l. 1.^
194 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
threaten a general explosion, and the march of armies into Italy
cannot end in a simple march. The disease of liberty is catch-
ing ; those armies will take it in the south, carry it thence to their
own country, spread there the infection of revolution and repre-
sentative government, and raise its people from the prone con-
dition of brutes to the erect altitude of man. Some fear our en-
velopment in the wars engendering from the unsettled state of
our aifairs with Spain, and therefore are anxious for a ratifica-
tion of our treaty with her. I fear no such thing, and hope that
if ratified by Spain it will be rejected here. We may justly say
to Spain, " when this negotiation commenced, twenty years ago,
your authority was acknowledged by those you are selling to us.
That authority is now renounced, and their right of self-disposal
asserted. In buying them from you, then, we buy but a war-
litle, a right to subdue them, which yon can neither convey nor
we acquire. This is a family quarrel in which we have no right
to meddle. Settle it between yourselves, and we will then treat
with the party whose right is acknowledged." With whom that
will be, no doubt can be entertained. And why should we re-
volt them by purchasing them as cattle, rather than receiving
them as fellow-men ? Spain has held off until she sees they are
lost to her, and now thinks it better to get something than no-
thing for them. When she shall see South America equally des-
perate, she will be wise to sell that also.
With us things are going on well. The boisterous sea of lib-
erty indeed is never without a wave, and that from Missouri is
now rolling towards us, but we shall ride over it as we have over
all others. It is not a moral question, but one merely of power.
Its object is to raise a geographical principle for the choice of a
president, and the noise will be kept up till that is effected. All
know that permitting the slaves of the south to spread into the
west will not add one being to that unfortunate condition, that
it will increase the happiness of those existing, and by spreading
them over a larger surface, will dilute the evil everywhere, and
facilitate the means of getting finally rid of it, an event more
anxiously wished by those on whom it presses than by the noisy
CORRESPONDENCE. 195
pretenders to exclusive humanity. In the meantime, it is a lad-
der for rivals climbing to power.
In a letter to Mr. Porrey, of March 18th, 1819, I informed
him of the success of our application to Congress on his behalf.
I enclosed this letter to you, but hearing nothing from him, and
as you say nothing of it in yours of July 20th, I am not without
fear it may have miscarried. In the present I enclose for him
the Auditor's certificate, and the letters of General Washington
and myself, which he had forwarded to me with a request of
their return. Your kindness in delivering thts will render un-
necessary another letter from me, an effort which necessarily
obliges me to spare myself.
If you shall hear from me more seldom than heretofore, ascribe
it, my ever dear friend, to the heavy load of seventy-seven years
and to waning health, but not to weakened affections; these will
continue what they have ever been, and will ever be sincere and
warm to the latest breath of yours devotedly.
TO MB. EOSCOE.
MoNTiCKLi.o, December 27, 1820.
Dear Sir, — Your letter received more than a twelvemonth
ago, with the two tracts on penal jurisprudence, and the literary
institution of Liverpool, ought long since to have called for the
thanks I now return, had it been in my power sooner to have
tendered them. But a long continuance of ill health has sus-
pended all power of answering the kind attentions with which
I have been honored during it ; and it is only now that a state
of slow and uncertain convalescence enables me to make ac-
knowledgments which have been so long and painfully delayed.
The treatise on penal jurisprudence I read with great pleasure.
Beccaria had demonstrated general principles, but practical appli-
cations were difficult. Our States are trying them with more or
less success ; and the great light you have thrown on the subject
will, I am sure, be useful to our experiment. For the thing, as
196 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
yet, is but in experiment. Your Liverpool institution will a'so
aid us in the organization of our new University, an establish-
ment now in progress in this State, and to which my remaining
days and faculties will be devoted. When ready for its Profes-
sors, we shall apply for them chiefly to your island. Were we
content to remain stationary in science, we should take them from
among ourselves ; but, desirous of advancing, we must seek
them in countries already in advance ; and identity of language
points to our best resource. To furnish inducements, we pro-
vide for the Professors separate buildings, in which themselves
and their families may be handsomely and comfortably lodged,
and to liberal salaries will be added lucrative perquisites. This
institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human
mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it
may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free
to combat it.
We are looking with wonder at what is passing among yon.
It
" Eesembles ocean into tempest wrouglit,
To waft a feather, or to drown a fly."
There must be something in these agitations more than meets
the eye of a distant spectator. Your queen must be used in this
as a rallying point merely, around which are gathering the dis-
contents of every quarter and character. If these flowed from
theories of government only, and if merely from the heads of
speculative men, they would admit of parley, of negotiation, of
management. But I fear they are the workings of hungry bel-
lies, which nothing but food will fill and quiet. I sincerely wish
you safely out of them. Circumstances have nourished between
our kindred countries angry dispositions which both ought long
since to have banished from their bosoms. I have ever consid-
ered a cordial affection as the first interest of both. No nation
on earth can hurt us so much as yours, none be more useful to
you than ours. The obstacle, we have believed, was in the
obstinate and unforgiving temper of your late king, and a con-
CORRESPONDENCE. 197
tinuance of his prejudices kept up from habit, after he was with
drawn from power. I hope T now see symptoms of sounder
views in your government ; in which I know it will be cordially
met by ours, as it would have been by every administration
which has existed under our present constitution. None desired
it more cordially than myself, whatever different opinions were
impressed on your government by a party who wishes to have
its weight in their scale as its exclusive friends.
My ancient friend and classmate, James Maury, informs me by
letter that he has sent me a bust which I shall receive with great
pleasure and thankfulness, and shall arrange in honorable file with
those of some cherished characters. Will you permit me to
place here my affectionate souvenirs of him, and accept for your-
self the assurance of the highest consideration and esteem.
TO FRANCIS EPPES.
MoNTiCEi,i,o. January 19, 1821.
Deah- Francis, — Your letter of the 1st came safely to hand.
I am sorry you have lost Mr. Elliot, however the kindness of
Dr. Cooper will be able to keep you in the track of what is
worthy of your time.
You ask my opinion of Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine.
They were alike in making bitter enemies of the priests and
pharisees of their day. Both were honest men ; both advocates
for human liberty. Paine wrote for a country which permitted
him to push his reasoning to whatever length it would go. Lord
Bolingbroke in one restrained by a constitution, and by public
opinion. He was called indeed a tory ; but his writings prove
him a stronger advocate for libei'ty than any of his countrymen,
the whigs of the present day. Irritated by his exile, he com-
mitted one act unworthy of him, in connecting himself momen-
tarily with a prince rejected by his country. But he redeemed
that single act by his establishment of the principles which proved
it to be wrong. These two persons differed remarkably in the
198 JEFFERSON'S WOKKS.
style of their writing, each leaving a model of what is most per-
fect in both extremes of the simple and the sublime. No writer
has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in perspi-
cuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and
unassuming language. In this he may be compared with Dr.
Franklin ; and indeed his Common Sense was, for awhile, be-
lieved to have been written by Dr. Franklin, and published un-
der the borrowed name of Paine, who had come over with him
from England. Lord Bolingbrbke's, on the other hand, is a
style of the highest order. The lofty, rythmical, full-flowing
eloquence of Cicero. Periods of just measure, their members
proportioned, their close full and round. His conceptions, too,
are bold and strong, his diction copious, polished and command-
ing as his subject. His writings are certainly the finest samples
in the English language, of the eloquence proper for the Senate.
His political tracts are safe reading for the most timid religion-
ist, his philosophical, for those who are not afraid to trust their
reason with disc^ussions of right and wrong.
You have asked my opinion of these persons, and, to you, I
have given it freely. But, remember, that I am old, that I wish
not to make new enemies, nor to give offence to those who
would consider a difference of opinion as sufficient ground for
unfriendly dispositions. God bless you, and make you what I
wish you to be.
TO ARCHIBALD THWEAT.
MoNTicKLi.o, January 19, 1821.
Dear Sib, — I duly received your favor of the 11th, covering
Judge Roane's letter, which I now return. Of the kindness
of his sentiments expressed towards myself I am highly sensi-
ble ; and could I believe that my public services had merited the
approbation he so indulgently bestows, the satisfaction I should
derive from it would be reward enough to his wish that I would
take a part in the transactions of the present day. I am sensi-
CORRESPONDENCE. 199
ble of my incompetence. For first, I know little about them,
having long withdrawn my attention from public affairs, and re-
signed myself with folded arms to the care of those who are to
care for us all. And, next, the hand of time pressing heavily on
me, in mind as well as body, leaves to neither sufficient energy
to engage in public contentions. I am sensible of the inroads
daiiy making by the federal, into the jurisdiction of its co-ordi-
nate associates, the State governments. The legislative and ex-
ecutive branches may sometimes err, but elections and depend-
ence will bring them to rights. The judiciary branch is the
instrument which, working like gravity, without intermission, is
to press us at last into one consolidated mass. Against this I
know no one who, equally with Judge Roane himself, possesses
the power and the courage to make resistance ; and to him 1
look, and have long looked, as our strongest bulwark. If Con-
gress fails to shield the States from dangers so palpable and so
imminent, the States must shield themselves, and meet the in-
vader foot to foot. This is already half done by Colonel Tay-
lor's book ; because a conviction that we are right accomplishes
half the difficulty of correcting wrong. This book is the most
effectual retraction of our government to its original principles
whi h has ever yet been sent by heaven to our aid. Every
State in the Union should give a copy to every member they
elect, as a standing instruction, and ours should set the example.
Accept with Mrs. Thweat the assurance of my affectionate and
respectful attachment.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoN'TicKLLO, January 2'2, 1821.
X was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and
spirits enough to take part in the late convention of your State,
for revising its constitution, and to bear your share in its debates
and labors. The amendments of which we have as yet heard,
prove the advance of liberalism in the intervening period ; and
200 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
encourage a hope that the human mind will some day get back
to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand years ago. This coun-
try, which has given to the world the example of physical liber-
ty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet it is but
nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms
in practice, the freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
Our anxieties ia this quarter are all concentrated in the ques-
tion, what does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean
to do with us on the Missouri question ? And this, by-the-bye,
is but the name of the case, it is only the John Doe or Richard
Roe of the ejectment. The real question, as seen in the States
afflicted with this unfortunate population, is, are our slaves to be
presented with freedom and a dagger ? For if Congress has the
power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of the States,
within the States, it will be but another exercise of that power,
to declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again Athe-
nian and Lacedemonian confederacies ? To wage another Pelo-
ponnesian war to settle the ascendency between them ? Or is
this the tocsin of merely a servile war ? That remains to be
seen ; but not, I hope, by you or me. Surely, they will parley
awhile, and give us time to get out of the way. What a Bed-
lamite is man ? But let us turn from our ov/n uneasiness to the
miseries of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo, it seems,
have come to the parley, with dispositions at length to stop the
useless effusion of human blood in that quarter. I feared from
the beginning, that these people were not yet sufficiently enlight-
ened for self-government ; and that after wading through blood
and slaughter, they would end in military tyrannies, more or less
numerous. Yet as they wished to try the experiment, I wished
them success in it ; they have now tried it, and will possibly find
that their safest road will be an accommodation with the mother
country, which shall hold them together by the single hnk of
the same chief magistrate, leaving to him power enough to keep
them in peace with one another, and to themselves the essential
power of self-government and self-improvement, until they shall
be sufficiently trained by education and habits of freedom, to
OORRESPOXDENOE. 201
walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the
press, habeas corpus and trial by jury, would make a good be-
ginning. This last would be the school in which their people
might begin to learn the exercise of civic duties as well as rights.
For freedom of religion they are not yet prepared. The scales
of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen from their eyes, to accept
it for themselves individually, much less to trust others with it.
But that will come in time, as well as a general ripeness to break
entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir, how
easily we prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while
we cannot cure our own. We must leave both, I believe, to
heaven, and wrap ourselves up in the mantle of resignation, and
of that friendship of which I tender to you the most sincere as-
surances. V
TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
M(;m[ckllo, January 31, 1821.
Deab Sie, — Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together,
three days ago. They fill me with gloom as to the dispositions
of our legislature towards the University. I perceive that I am
not to live to see it opened. As to what had better be done
within the limits of their will, I trust with entire confidence to
what yourself, Gen. Breckenridge and Mr. Johnson shall think
best. You will see what is practicable, and give it such shape
as you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think sixty
thousand dollars will be necessary, including the library. Its in-
stalments cannot begin until those of the former loan are accom-
plished ; and they should not begin later, nor be less than thir-
teen thousand dollars a year. (I think it safe to retain two thon-
oand dollars a year for care of the buildings, improvement of
the grounds, and unavoidable contingencies.) To extingmsh
this second loan, will require between five and six instalments,
which will carry us to the end of 1833, or thirteen years from
202 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
this time. My individual opinion is, that we had better not open
the institution until the buildings, library, and all, are finished,
and our funds cleared of incumbrance. These buildings oncts
erected, will secure the full object infallibly at the end of thirteen
years, and as much earlier as the legislature shall choose. And
if we were to begin sooner, with half funds only, it would satisfy
the common mind, prevent their aid beyond that point, and our
institution remaining at that forever, would be no more than the
paltry academies we now have. Even with the whole funds we
shall be reduced to six professors. Whjle Harvard will still prime
it over us with her twenty professors. How many of our youths
she now has, learning the lessons of anti-Missourianism, I know
not ; but a gentleman lately from Princeton, told me he saw there
the list of the students at that place, and that more than half
were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt, deeply im-
pressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of re-
strictionists.
But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the
best friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I
know not the necessities which may force this on you. General
Cocke, you say, will explain them to me ; but I cannot conceive
them, nor persuade myself they are uncontrollable. I have ever
hoped, that yourself, Gen. Breckenridge and Mr. Johnson would
stand at your posts in the legislature, until everything was effect-
ed, and the institution opened. If it is so difficult to get along
with all the energy and influence of our present colleagues in the
legislature, how can we expect to proceed at all, reducing our
moving power? I know well your devotion to your country,
and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or
later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her
equal to this ? What object of our lives can we propose so im-
portant ? What interest of our own which ought not to be post-
poned to this? Health, time, labor, on what in the single life
which nature has given us, can these be better bestowed than on
this immortal boon to our country ? The exertions and the mor-
tifications are temporary ; the benefit eternal. If any member of
CORRESPONDENCE. 203
our college of visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred
duty, it would be myself, who, quadragenis stipendiis jamdu-
dum peractis, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep
the field ; but I will die in the last ditch, and so I hope you will,
my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues,
Mr. Johnson and Gen. Breckenridge. Nature will not give you
a second life wherein to atone for the omissions of this. Pray
then, dear and very dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but
view the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the lesser
duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest of
all Continue with us in these holy labors, until having seen
their accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, " nunc di-
mittas, Domine." Under all circumstances, however, of praise
or blame, I shall be aflectionately yours.
TO JARED MANSFIELD, ESQ.
MoNTiCELLo, February 13, 1821.
I am favored. Sir, with your letter of January 26th, and am
duly sensible of the honor proposed of giving to my portrait a
place among the benefactors of our nation, and of the establish-
ment of West Point in particular. I have ever considered that
establishment as of major importance to our country, and in
whatever I could do for it, I viewed myself as performing a duty
only. This is certainly more than requited by the kind senti-
ments expressed in your letter. The real debt of the institution
is to its able and zealous professors. Mr. Sully, I fear, however,
will consider the trouble of his journey, and the employment of
his fine pencil, as illy bestowed on an ottamy of 78. Voltaire,
when requested by a female friend to sit for his bust by the
sculptor Pigalle, answered, " J'ai soixante seize ans ; et M. Pigalle
doit, dit-on venir modeler mon visage. Mais, Madame, il fau-
drait que j'eusse un visage. On n'en devinerait a peine la place
mes yeux sont enfonces de trois pouces ; mes joues sent de vieux
parchemin mal coUes sur des os qui ne tiennent a rien. Le pcLi
204 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
de dents que j'avais est parti." I will conclude, however, with
him, that what remains is at your service, and that of the pencil
of Mr. Sully. I shall be at home till the middle of April, when
I shall go for some time to an occasional and distant residence.
Within this term Mr. Sully will be pleased to consult his own
convenience, in which the state of the roads will of course have
great weight. Every day of it will be equal with me.
I pray you. Sir, to convey to the brethren of your institution,
and to accept for yourself also, the assurance of my high con-
sideration and regard.
TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
MoNiCELLO, February 15, 1821.
Deah Sir, — I learn, with deep affliction, that nothing is likely
to be done for our University this year. So near as it is to the
shore that one shove more would land it there, I had hoped that
would be given ; and that we should open with the next year an
institution on which the fortunes of our country may depend more
than may meet the general eye. The reflections that the boys
of this age are to be the men of the next ; that they should be
prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to
deliver over to them ; that in establishing an institution of wis-
dom for them, we secure it to all our future generations ; that in
fulfilling this duty, we bring home to our OAvn bosoms the sweet
consolation of seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition,
to destinies of high promise ; these are considerations which will
occur to all ; but all, I fear, do not see the speck in our horizon
which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The hne
of division lately marked out between different portions of our
confederacy, is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and we
are now trusting to those who are against us in position and prin-
ciple, to fashion to their own form the minds and affections of
our youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three hundred
thousand dollars a year to the northern seminaries, for the in-
COREEi^PONDENOE. 205
struction of our own sons, then we must have there five hundred
of our sons, imbibing opinions and principles in discord with
those of their own country. This canker is eating on the vitak
of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be beyond re-
medy.. We are now certainly fLirnishing recruits to their school.
If it be asked what are we to do, or said we cannot give the last
lift to the University without stopping our primary schools, and
these we think most important ; I answer, I know their import-
ance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction
of the people. Who first started that idea ? I may surely say,
myself. Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew more
than forty years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the
education of the people, generally, had never been suggested in
this State. There you will see developed the first rudiments of
the whole system of general education we are now urging and
acting on ; and it is well known to those with whom I have acted
on this subject, that I never have proposed a sacrifice of the pri-
mary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us keep our eye
steadily on the whole system. If we cannot do everything at
once, let us do one at a time. The primary schools need no pre-
liminary expense ; the ultimate grade requires a considerable ex-
penditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year or
two on the primary schools, and an application of the whole in-
come, during that time, to the completion of the buildings neces-
sary for the University, would enable us then to start both institu-
tions at the same time. The intermediate branch, of colleges,
academies and private classical schools, for the middle grade, may
hereafter receive any necessary aids when the funds shall become
competent. In the meantime, they are going on sufficiently, as
they have ever yet gone on, at the private expense of those who
use them, and who in numbers and means are competent to their
own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I presume,
left no doubt that the present plan of primary schools, of putting
money into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for no-
thing, and under no responsibility, is entirely inefiicient. Some
other must be thought of; and during this pause, if it be only for
206 JEFFERSOK'S WORKS.
a year, the whole revenue of that year, with that of the last three
years which has not been already thrown away, would place our
University in readiness to start with a better organization of pri-
mary schools, and both may then go on, hand in hand, forever.
No diminution of the capital will in this way have been incurred ;
a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A relinquishment
of interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars, would so far,
also, forward the University without lessening the capital.
But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to
yourself and your colleagues in legislation, who know better
than I do the conditions of the literary fund and its wisest ap-
plication ; and I shall acquiesce with perfect resignation to theii
will. I have brooded, perhaps with fondness, over this estab-
lishment, as it held up to me the hope of continuing to be useful
while I continued to live. I had believed that the course and cir-
cumstances of my life had placed within my power soigne services
favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be egot-
ism ; pardonable, perhaps, .when I express a consciousness that
my colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the leg-
islature shall enable them to do.
I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxi-
eties, freely to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a differ-
ent light. I am sure that all act conscientiously, and that all will
be done honestly and wisely which can be done. I yield the
concerns of the world with cheerfuhiess to those who are ap-
pointed in the order of nature to succeed to them ; and for your-*
self, for our colleagues, and for all in charge of our country's fu-
ture fame and fortune, I otfer up sincere prayers.
TO DABNEY TERRELL, ESQ,.
MoNTiOKLi.o, February 26, 18-21.
Dear Sir, — While you were in this neighborhood, you men-
tioned to me your intention of studying the law, and asked my
opinion as to the sufficient course of reading. I gave it to you,
CORRESPOjSTDEKOE. 207
ore tenns, and with so little consideration that I do not remem-
ber what it was ; but I have since recollected that I once wrote
a letter to Dr. Cooper,* on good consideration of the subject. He
was then law-lecturer, I believe, at Carlisle. My stiffening wrist
makes writing now a slow and painful operation, but my grand-
daughter Ellen undertakes to copy the letter, which I shall en-
close herein.
I notice in that letter four distinct epochs at which the English
laws have been reviewed, and their whole body, as existing at
each epoch, well digested into a code. These digests were by
Bracton, Coke, Matthew Bacon and Blackstone. Bracton having
written about the commencement of the extant statutes, may be
considered as having given a digest of the laws then in being,
written and unwritten, and forming, therefore, the textual code of
what is called the common law, just at the period too when it
begins to be altered by statutes to which we can appeal. But so
much of his matter is become obsolete by change of circum-
stances or altered by statute, that the student may omit him for
the present, and
1st. Begin with fCoke's four Institutes. These give a com-
plete body of the law as it stood in the reign of the first James,
an epoch the more interesting to us, as we separated at that point
from English legislation, and acknowledge no subse.;iuent stat-
utary alterations.
* January 16, 1814
f Since the date of this letter, a most important and valuable edition has been
pi;blislied of CokeV First Institute. The editor, Thomas, has analyzed the -whole
work, and re-eomposed its matter in the order of Blackstone's Commentaries, not
omitting a sentence of Lord Coke's text, nor inserting one not his. In notes, un-
der the text, he has given the modern decisions relating to the same subjects,
rendering it thus as methodical, lucid, easy and agreeable to the reader as Blaok-
Btoue, and more precise and profound. It can now be no longer doubted that
this is the very best elementary work for a beginner in the study of the law. It
is not, I suppose, to be had in this State, and questionable if in the North, as yet,
and it is dear, costing iu England four guineas or nineteen dollars, to whieh add
the duty here on imported books, which, on the three volumes 8vo, is something
more than three dollars, or one dollar the 8to volume. This is a tax on learned
readers to support printers for the readers of " The Delicate Distress, and The
Wild Irish Boy"
208 JEFFERSON'S WOKZS.
2. Then passing over (for occasional reading as hereafter pro-
posed) all the reports and treatises to the time of Matthew Ba-
con, read his abridgment, compiled about one hundred years after
Coke's, in which they are all embodied. This gives numerous
applications of the old principles to new cases, and gives the gen-
eral state of the English law at that period.
Here, too, the student should take up the chancery branch of
the law, by reading the first and second abridgments of the cases
in Equity. The second is by the same Matthew Bacon, the first
having been published some time before. The alphabetical order
adopted by Bacon, is certainly not as satisfactory as the system-
atic. But the arrangement is under very general and leading
heads, and these, indeed, with very little difficulty, might be sys-
tematically instead of alphabetically arranged and read.
3. Passing now in like manner over all intervening reports
and tracts, the student may take up Blackstone's Commentaries,
published about twenty-five years later than Bacon's abridgment,
and giving the substance of these new reports and tracts. This
review is not so full as that of Bacon, by any means, but better
digested. Here, too, Woodeson should be read as supplementary
to Blackstone, under heads too shortly treated by him. Fou-
blanque's edition of Francis' Maxims of Equity, and Bridgman's
digested Index, into which the latter cases are incorporated, are
also sujjplementary in the chancery branch, in which Blackstone
is very short.
This course comprehends about twenty-six 8vo volumes, and
reading four or five hours a day would employ about two years.
After these, the best of the reporters since Blackstone should
be read for the new cases which have occurred since his time.
Which they are I know not, as all of them are since my time.
By way of change and relief for another hour or two in the
day, should be read the law-tracts of merit which are many, and
among them all those of Baron Gilbert are of the fii'st order. la
these hours, too, may be read Bracton, (now translated,) and Jus-
tinian's Institute. The method of these two last works is very
much the same, and their language often quite so. Justinian is
CORRESPONDENCE. 209
*ery illustrative of the doctrines of equity, and is often appealea
lo, and Cooper's edition is the best on account of the analogies and
contrasts he has given of the Roman and Enghsh law. Aftor
Bracton, Reeves' History of the English Law may he read to ad-
vantage. During this same hour or two of lighter law reading,
select and leading cases of the reporters may be successively
read, which the several digests will have pointed out and re-
ferred to.
*******
I have here sketched the reading in common law and chan-
cery which I suppose necessary for a reputable practitioner in
those courts. But there are other branches of law in which, al-
though it is not expected he should be an adept, yet when it
occurs to speak of them, it should be understandingly to a decent
degree. There are the Admiralty law, Ecclesiastical law, and the
Law of Nations. I would name as elementary books in these
branches, Molloy de Jure Maritimo. Brown's Compend of the
Civil and Admiralty Law, 2 vols. 8vo. The Jura Ecclesiastica,
2 vols. 8vo. And Les Institutions du droit de la Nature et des
Gens de Reyneval, 1 vol. 8vo.
Besides these six hours of law reading, light and heavy, and
those necessary for the repasts of the day, for exercise and sleep,
which suppose to be ten or twelve, there will still be six or eight
hours for reading history, politics, ethics, physics, oratory, poetry,
criticism, &c., as necessary as law to form an accomplished
lawyer.
The letter to Dr. Cooper, with this as a suppleriient, will give
you those ideas on a sufficient course of law reading which I
ought to have done with more consideration at the moment of
your first request. Accept them now as a testimony of my es-
teem, and of sincere wishes for your success ; and the family, una
voce, desires me to convey theirs with my own affectionate salu-
tations.
vol.. VII. 14
210 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, ES^.
MoxTiOKLLO, February 27, 1821,
I have received, Sir, your favor of the 12th, and I assure you
I received it with pleasure. It is true, as you say, that we have
differed in political opinions ; but I can say with equal truth, that
I never suffered a political to become a personal difference. I
have been left on this ground by some friends whom I dearly
loved, but I was never the first to separate. With some others,
of politics different from mine, I have continued in the warmest
friendship to this day, and to all, and to yourself particularly, 1
have ever done moral justice.
I thank you for Mr. Channing's discourse, which you have
been so kind as to forward me. It is not yet at hand, but is
doubtless on its way. I had received it through another chan-
nel, and read it with high satisfaction. No one sees with greater
pleasure than myself the progress of reason, in its advances to-
wards rational Christianity. When we shall have done away the
incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three
are one, and one is three ; when we shall have knocked down
the artificial scaffolding, reared to mask from view the simple
structure of Jesus ; when, in short, we shall have unlearned every-
thing which has been taught since his day, and got back to the
pure and simple doctrines he inculcated, we shall then be truly
and worthily his disciples; and my opinion is that if nothing had
ever been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole
world would at this day have been Christian. I know that the
case you cite, of Dr. Drake, has been a common one. The re-
ligion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of
Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods
have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable,
as to shock reasonable thinkers, to revolt them against the whole,
and drive them rashly to pronounee its founder an impostor.
Had there never been a commentator, there never would have
been an infidel. In the present advance of truth, which we both
approve, I do not know that you and I may think alike on jJI
CORRESPONDENCE. 211
points. As the Creator has made no two faces alike, so no two
minds, and probably no two creeds. We well know that among
Unitarians themselves there are strong shades of difference, as be-
tween Doctor<5 Price and Priestley, for example. So there may
be peculiarities in your creed and in mine. They are honestly
formed without doubt. I do not wish to trouble the world with
mine, nor to be troubled for them. These accounts are to be set-
tled only with him who made us ; and to him we leave it, with
charity for all others, of whom, also, he is the only rightful and
competent judge. I have little doabt that the whole of our coun-
try will soon be rallied to the unity of the Creator, and, I hope,
to the piue doctrines of Jesus also.
In saying to you so much, and without reserve, on a subject
on which I never permit myself to go before the public, I know
that I am safe against the infidelities which have so often be-
trayed my letters to the strictures of those for whom they were
not written, and to whom I never meant to commit my peace.
To yourself I wish every happiness, and will conclude, as you
have done, in the same simple style of antiquity, da operam ut
valeas ; hoc mihi gratius facere nihil potes.
TO JUDGE ROANE.
HoNTicELLo, Mnrc-h 9, 1821.
Dear Sir, — I am indebted for your favor of February 25th,
and especially for your friendly indulgence to my excuses for re-
tiring from the polemical world. I should not shrink from the
post of duty, had not the decays of nature withdrawn me from
the list of combatants. Great decline in the energies of the body
import naturally a corresponding wane of the mind, and a long-
ing after tranquillity as the last and sweetest asylum of age. It
is a law of nature that the generations of men should give way,
one to another, and I hope that the one now on the stage will
preserve for their sons the political blessings delivered into their
hands by their fathers. Time indeed changes manners and no-
tions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them.
212 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
But tiire produces also coiTuption of principles, and against this
it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the
gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as
possible. We see already germs of this, as might be expected.
But we are not the less bound to press against them. The mul-
tiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income,
growth and entailment, of a public debt, are indications soliciting
the employment of the pruning-knife ; and I doubt not it will be
employed ; good principles being as yet prevalent enough for
that.
The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That
body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarm-
ing advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it
gains, is ingulphing insidiously the special governments into the
jaws of that which feeds them. The recent recall to first prin-
ciples, however, by Colonel Taylor, by yourself, and now by
Alexander Smith, will, I hope, be heard and obeyed, and that a
temporary cheek will be effected. Yet be not weary of well
doing. Let the eye of vigilance never be closed.
Last and most portentous of all is the Missouri question. It is
smeared over for the present ; but its geographical demarcation is
indelible. What it is to become, I see not ; and leave to those
who will live to see it. The University will give employment
to my remaining years, and quite enough for my senile faculties.
It is the last act of usefulness I can render, and could I see it
open I would not ask an hour more of life. To you I hope
many will still be given ; and, certain they will all be employed
for the good of our beloved country, I salute you with sentiments
of especial friendship and respect.
TO JUDGE ROANE,
MoNTiOELLo. June 27, 1821.
Deab Sir, — I have received through the hands of the Gover-
aor, Colonel Taylor's letter to you. It is with extreme reluctance
CORRESPONDENCE. 213
that I permit myself to usurp the office of an adviser of tlie pub-
lic, what books they should read, and what not. I yield, how-
ever, on this occasion to your wish and that of Colonel Taylor,
and do what (with a single exception only) I never did before,
on the many similar applications made to me. On reviewiiig
my letters to Colonel Taylor and to Mr. Thweatt, neither ap-
peared exactly proper. Each contained matter which might give
offence to the judges, without adding strength to the opinion. I
have, therefore, out of the two, cooked up what may be called
"an extract of a letter from Th: J. to ;" but without say-
ing it is published with my consent. That would forever deprive
me of the ground of declining the office of a Reviewer of books
in future cases. I sincerely wish the attention of the public may
be drawn to the doctrines of the book ; and if this self-styled
-extract may contribute to it, I shall be gratified. I salute you
with constant friendship and respect.
EXTEACT OF A LETTER EROM TH: JEFFERSON TO
I have read Colonel Taylor's book of " Constructions Con-
strued," with great satisfaction, and, I will say, with edification ;
for I acknowledge it corrected some errors of opinion into which
I had slidden without sufficient examination. It is Ihe most
logical retraction of our governments to the original and true
principles of the constitution creating them, which has appeared
since the adoption of that instrument. I may not perhaps concur
in all its opinions, great and small ; for no two men ever thought
alike on so many points. But on all its important questions, it
contains the true political faith, to which every catholic repub-
lican should steadfastly hold. It should be put into the hands
of all our functionaries, authoritatively, as a standing instruction,
and true exposition of our Constitution, as understood at the time
we agreed to it. It is a fatal heresy to suppose that either our
State governments are superior to the federal, or the federal to
the States. The people, to whom all authority belongs, have
divided the powers of government into two distinct departments,
the leading characters of which are foreign and domestic ; and
214 JEFFERSON'S "WOEKS.
they l.a\t appointed for each a distinct set of fanctiouaries
These they have made co-ordinate, checking and balancing each
other, hke the three cardinal departments in the individual
States: each equally supreme as to the powers delegated to it-
self, and neither authorized ultimately to decide what belongs to
itself, or to its coparcenor in government. As independent, in
tact, as different nations, a spirit of forbearance and compromi.°e,
therefore, and not of encroachment and usurpation, is the healing
balm of such a constitution ; and each party should prudently
shrink from all approach to the line of demarcation, instead of
rashly overleaping it, or throwing grapples ahead to haul to here-
after. Bat, finally, the peculiar happiness of our blessed system
is, that in differences of opinion between these different sets of
servants, the appeal is to neither, but to their employers peace-
ably assembled by their representatives in Convention. This is
more rational than the jus fortioris, or the cannon's mouth, the
ultima et sola ratio regum.
TO GENERAL DEAKBORNE.
iloiNTiuKi.Lo, Atigast It, 1821,
Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 8th came to hand yesterday
evening. I hope you will never suppose yom' letters to be among
those which are troublesome to me. They are always welcome,
and it is among my great comforts to hear from my ancient col-
leagues, and to know that they are well. The affectionate recol-
lection of Mrs. Dearborne, cherished by our family, will ever
render her health and happiness interesting to them. You are
so far asteru of Mr. Adams and myself, that you must not yet talk
of old age. 1 am happy to hear of his good health. I think he
will outlive us all, I mean the Declaration-men, although our
senior siuce the death of Colonel Floyd. It is a race in which I
have no ambition to win. Man, like the fruit he eats, has his
period of ripeness. Like that, too, if he continues longer hang-
ing to the stem, it is but au useless and unsightly appendage, i
CORRESPONDENCE. 215
rejoice with you that the State of Missouri is at length a membt-i
of our Union. Whether the question it excited is dead, or only
sleepeth, I do not know. I see only that it has given resurrec-
tion to the Hartford convention men. They have had the ad-
dress, by playing on the honest feelings of our former friends, to
seduce them from their kindred spirits, and to borrow their weight
into the federal scale. Desperate of regaining power under po-
litical distinctions, they have adroitly wriggled into its seat under
the auspices of morality, and are again in the ascendency from
which their sins had hurled them. It is indeed of little con-
sequence who governs us, if they sincerely and zealously cherish
the principles of union and republicanism.
I still believe that the Western extension of our confederacy
will ensure its duration, by overruling local factions, which might
shake a smaller association. But whatever may be the merit or
demerit of that acquisition, I divide it with my colleagues, to
whose councils 1 was indebted for a course of administration
which, notwithstanding this late coalition of clay and brass, will,
I hope, continue to receive the approbation of our country.
The portrait by Stewart was received in due time and good
order, and claims, for this difficult acquisition, the thanks of the
family, who join me in affectionate souvenirs of Mrs. Dearborne
and yourself. My particular salutations to both flow, as ever,
from the heart, continual and warm.
TO MR. C. HAMMOND.
Mu.N'iicKj.ut, August 18, 1821.
SiK, — Your favor of the 7th is just now received. The letter
to which it refers was written by me with the sole view of rec-
ommending to the study of my fellow citizens a book which I
considered as containing more genuine doctrines on the subject
of our government, and carrying us back more truly to its funda-
mental principles, than any one which had been written since the
adoption of our constitution. As confined to this object. I thought,
216 JEFFERSON'S "WOEEIS.
and still think, its language as plain and intelligible as I can make
it. But when we see inspired writings made to speak whatever
opposite controversialists wish them to say, we cannot ourselves
expect to find language incapable of similar distortion. My ex-
pressions were general ; their perversion is in their misapplication
to a particular case. To test them truly, they should turn to the
book with whose opinion they profess to coincide. If the book
establishes that a State has no right to tax the monied property
within its limits, or that it can be called, as a party, to the bar
of the federal judiciary, then they may infer that -these are my
Dpinions. If no such doctrines are there, my letter does not au-
thorize their imputation to me.
It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never
shrunk from its expression, (although I do not choose to put it
into a newspaper, nor, like a Priam in armor, offer myself its
champion,) that the germ of dissolution of our federal govern-
ment is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsi-
ble body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow,) working
like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a
little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief,
over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the
States, and the government of all be consolidated into one. To
this I am opposed ; because, when all government, domestic and
foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washing-
ton as the centre of ail power, it will render powerless the checks
provided of one government on another, and will become as
venal and oppressive as the government from which we separat-
ed. It will be as in Europe, where every man must be eithei
pike or gudgeon, hammer or anvil. Our functionaries and theirs
are wares from the same work-shop ; made of the same materials,
and by the same hand. If the States look with apathy on this
silent descent of their government into the gulf/ which is to
swallow all, we have only to weep over the human character
formed uncoutrolable but by a rod of iron, and the blasphemers
of man, as incapable of self-government, become his true histo-
rians.
COEPvESPONDENOE. 217
But let me beseech yon, Sir, not to let this letter get into a
newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, is the supreme good of life.
I think it a duty, and it is my earnest wish, to take no further
part in public affairs ; to leave them to the existing generation to
whose turn they have fallen, and to resign the remains of a de-
caying body and mind to their protection. The abuse of confi-
dence by publishing my letters has cost me more than all other
pains, and make me afraid to put pen to paper in a letter of sen-
timent. If I have done it frankly in answer to your letter, it is
in full trust that I shall not be thrown by you into the arena of
a newspaper. I salute you with great respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLo, September 12, 1821.
Dear Sir, — I am just returned from my other home, and shall
within a week go back to it for the rest of the autumn. I find
here your favor of August 20th, and was before in arrear for that
of May 19th. I cannot answer, but join in, your question of May
19th. Are we to surrender the pleasing hopes of seeing improve-
ment in the moral and intellectual condition of man ? The
events of Naples and Piedmont cast a gloomy cloud over that
hope, and Spain and Portugal are not beyond jeopardy. And
what are we to think of this northern triumvirate, arming their
nations to dictate despotisms to the rest of the world ? And the
evident connivance of England, as the price of secret stipulations
for contiqental armies, if her own should take side with her mal-
content and pulverized people ? And what of the poor Greeks,
and their small chance of amelioration even if the hypocritical
Autocrat should take them under the iron cover of his Ukazes
Would this be lighter or safer than that of the Turk ? These,
my dear friend, are speculations for the new generation, as,
before they will be resolved, you and I must join our deceased
brother Floyd. Yet I will not believe our labors are lost, i
shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady
218 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
advance. We have seen, indeed, once within the records of his-
tory, a complete eclipse of the human mind continuing for centu-
ries. And this, too, by swarms of the same northern barbarians,
conquering and taking possession of the countries and govern-
ments of the civilized world. Should this be again attempted,
should the same northern hordes, allured again by the corn, wine,
and oil of the south, be able again to settle their swarms in the
countries of their growth, the art of printing alone, and the vast
dissemination of books, will maintain the mind where it is, and
raise the conquering ruffians to the level of the conquered, in-
stead of degrading these to that of their conquerors. And even
should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the
science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve
and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled
on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe
to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism ; on the con-
trary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
I think with you that there should be a school of instruction
for our navy as well as artillery ; and I do not see why the same
establishment might not suffice for both. Both require the same
basis of general mathematics, adding projectiles and fortiiications
for the artillery exclusively, and astronomy and theory of naviga-
tion exclusively for the naval students. Berout conducted both
schools in France, and has left us the best book extant for their
joint and separate instruction. It ought not to require a sepa-
rate professor.
A 4th of July oration delivered in the town of Milford, in your
State, gives to Samuel Chase the credit of having " iirst started
the cry of independence in the ears of his countrymen." Do you
remember anything of this ? I do not. I have no doubt it was
uttered in Massachusetts even before it was by Thomas Paine.
But certainly I never considered Samuel Chase as foremost, or
even forward in that hallowed cry. I know that Maryland hung
Vieavily on our backs, and that Chase, although first named, was
not most in unison with us of that delegation, either in politics
or morals, d c^est ainsi que Von ecrit Vhistoire !
CORRESPONDENCE. 219
Your doubt of the legilimacj' of the word gloriola, is resolved
by Cicero, who, in his letter to Lucceius expresses a wish "wi
nos inetipsi vivi gloriola nostra perfruamur.^^ Affectionately
adieu.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEHSON.
Monti ziLLu, September i'4, 1S21,
Dear Sik, — I thank you for your favor of the 12th instant.
Hope springs eternal. Eight millions of Jews hope for a Messiah
more powerful and glorious than Moses, David, or Solomon ;
who is to make them as powerful as he pleases. Some hundreds
of millions of Musslemen expect another prophet more powerful
than Mahomet, who is to spread Islamism over the whole earth.
Hundreds of millions of Christians expect and hope for a millen-
nium in which Jesus is to reign for a thousand years over the
whole world before it is burnt up. The Hindoos expect another
and final incarnation of Vishnu, who is to do great and wonder-
ful things, I know not what. All these hopes are founded on
real or pretended revelation. The modern Greeks, too, it seems,
hope for a deliverer who is to produce them — the Themisto-
cleses and Demostheneses — the Platos and Aristotles — the Solons
and Lycurguses. On what prophecies they found their belief,
1 know not. You and I hope for splendid improvements in
human society, and vast amelioration in the condition of man-
kind. Our faith may be supposed by more rational arguments
than any of the former, I own that I am very sanguine in the
belief of them, as I hope and believe you are, and your reasoning
in your letter confirmed me in them.
As Brother Floyd has gone, I am now the oldest of the little
Congressional group that remain. I may therefore rationally
hope to be the fii-st to depart ; and as you are the youngest and
most energetic in mind and body, you may therefore rationally
hope to be the last to take your flight, and to rake up the fire as
father Sherman, who always staid to the last, and commonly
two days afterwards, used to say, " that it was his office to sit up
220 JEFFERSOK'S WORKS.
and rake the ashes over the coals." And much satisfaction ma3f
you have in your ofRce.
The cholera morbus has done wonders in St. Helena and in
London. We shall soon hear of a negotiation for a second wife.
Whether in the body, or out of the body, I shall always be your
friend.
The anecdote of Mr. Chase, contained in the oration delivered
at Milford, must be an idle rumor, for neither the State of Mary-
land, nor of their delegates, were very early in their conviction
of the necessity of independence, nor very forward in promoting
it. The old speaker Tilghman, Johnson, Chase, and Paca, were
steady in promoting resistance, but after some of them, Maryland
sent one, at least, of the most turbulent Tories that ever came to
Congress.
TO .
MoNricKLLo, September 28, 1821.
Sir, — The government of the United States, at a very early
period, when establishing its tariff on foreign importations, were
very much guided in their selection of objects by a desire to en-
courage manufactures within ourselves. Among other articles
then selected were books, on the importation of which a duty of
fifteen per cent, was imposed, which, by ordinary custom house
charges, amount to about eighteen per cent., and adding the im-
porting booksellers profit on this, becomes about twenty-seven
per cent. This was useful at first, perhaps, towards exciting our
printers to make a beginning in that business here. But it is
fouad in experience that the home demand is not sufficient to
justify the re-printing any but the most popular English works,
and cheap editions of a few of the classics for schools. For the
editions of value, enriched by notes, commentaries, &c., and for
books in foreign living languages, the demand here is too small
and sparse to reimburse the expense of re-printing them. None
of these, therefore, are printed here, and the duty on them be-
comes consequently not a protecting, but really a prohibitory^ one
CORRESPONDENCE. 221
It makes a very serious addition to the price of the book, and
falls chiefly on a description of persons little able to meet it.
Students who are destined for professional callings, as most of
our scholars are, are barely able for the most part to meet the ex-
penses of tuition. The addition of eighteen or twenty-seven per
cent, on the books necessary for their instruction, amounts often
to a prohibition as to them. For want of these aids, which are
open to the students of all other nations but our own, they enter
on their course on a very unequal footing with those of the same
professions in foreign countries, and our citizens at large, too,
who employ them, do not derive from that employment all the
benefit which higher qualifiations would give them. It is true
that no duty is required on books imported for seminaries o.
learning, but these, locked up in libraries, can be of no avail to
the practical man when he wishes a recm-rence to them for the
uses of life. Of many important books of reference there is not
perhaps a single copy in the United States ; of others but a few,
and these too distant often to be accessible to scholars generally.
It is believed, therefore, that if the attention of Congress could
be drawn to this article, they would, in their wisdom, see its im-
policy. Science is more important in a republican than in any
other government. And in an infant country like ours, we must
much depend for improvement on the science of other countries,
longer established, possessing better means, and more advanced
than we are. To prohibit us from the benefit of foreign light,
is to consign us to long darkness.
The northern seminaries following with parental solicitude the
interests of their eleves in the course for which they have pre-
pared them, propose to petition Congress on this subject, and
wish for the cooperation of those of the south and west, and I
have been requested, as more convenient in position than they
are, to solicit that cooperation. Having no personal acquaintance ■
with those who are charged with the direction of the college of
J I do not know how more eflfectually to communi-
cate these views to them, than by availing myself of the knowl-
edge I have of your zeal for the happiness and improvement of
222 JEFFERSON'S WOREb.
our country. I take the liberty, therefore, of requesting you to
place the subject before the proper authorities of that institution,
and if they approve the measure, to solicit a concurrent proceed-
ing on their part to carry it into effect. Besides petitioning Con-
gress, I Nwould propose that ihey address in their corporate capac-
ity, a letter to their delegates and senators in Congress, soliciting
their best endeavors to obtain the repeal of the duty on imported
books. I cannot but suppose that such an application will be re-
spected by them, and will engage their votes and endeavors to
effect an object so reasonable. A conviction that science is im-
portant to the preservation of our republican government, and
that it is also essential to its protection against foreign power, in-
duces me, on this occasion, to step beyond the limits of that re-
tirement to which age and inclination equally dispose me, and I
am without a doubt that the same considerations will induce you
to excuse-the trouble I propose to you, and that you will kindly
accept the assurance of my high respect and esteem.
TO NATHANIEL MACON.
MoNTfCELLO, November 23, 1821.
Deae Sir, — Absence at an occasional but distant residence,
prevented my receiving your friendly letter of October 20th till
three days ago. A line from my good old friends is like balm to
my soul. You ask me what you are to do with my letter of
September 19th ? I wrote it, my dear Sir, with no other view
than to pour my thoughts into your bosom. I knew they would
be safe there, and I believed they would be welcome. But if
you think, as you say, that " good may be done by showing it to
a few well-tried friends" I have no objection to that, but ulti-
mately you cannot do better than to throw it into the fire.
My confidence, as you kindly observed, has been often abused
by the publication of my letters for the purposes of interest or
vanity, and it has been to me the source of much pain to be ex-
hibited before the public in forms not meant for them. I receive
00REE8P0NDENCE. 223
letters expressed in the most friendly and even affectionate terms,
sometimes, perhaps, asking my'opinion on some subject. I can-
not refuse to answer such letters, nor can I do it dryly and sus-
piciously. Among a score or two of such correspondents, one
perhaps betrays me. I feel it mortifyingly, but conclude I had
better incur one treachery than offend a score or two of good
people. I sometimes expressly desire that my letter may not be
published ; but this is so like requesting a man not to steal or
cheat, that I am ashamed of it after I have done it.
Our government is now taking so steady a course as to show
by what road it will pass to destruction, to-wit : by consolida-
tion first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. The
engine of consolidation will be the federal judiciary ; the two
other branches, the corrupting and corrupted instruments. I fear
an explosion in our State Legislature. I wish they may restrain
themselves to a strong but temperate protestation. Virginia is
not at present in favor with her co-States. An opposition headed
by her would determine all the anti-Missouri States to take the
contrary side. She had better lie by, therefore, till the shoe shall
pinch an eastern State. Let the cry be first raised from that
quarter, and we may fall into it with effect. But I fear our east-
ern associates wish for consolidation, in which they would be
joined by the smaller States generally. But, with one foot in
the grave, I have no right to meddle with these things. Ever
and affectionately yours.
TO .
iloNTicKLLo, November 29, 1 821.
Deah Sih, — You have often gratified me by your astronomi-
cal communications, and I am now about to amuse you with one
of mine. But I must first explain the circumstances which have
drawn me into a speculation so foreign to the path of life which
the times in which I have lived, more than my own incliuatioos
have led me to pm-sue.
224 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
I had long deemed it incumbent on the authorities of our
country, to have the great western wilderness beyond the Mis-
sissippi, explored, to make known its geography, its natural pro-
ductions, its general character and inhabitants. Two attempts
which I had myself made formerly, before the country was ours,
the one from west to east, the other from east to west, had both
proved abortive. When called to the administration of the gen-
eral government, I made this an object of early attention, and pro-
posed it to Congress. They voted a sum of five thousand dollars
for its execution, and I placed Captain Lewis at the head of the
enterprise' No man within the range of my acquaintance, united
so manj -jf the qualifications necessary for its successful directiori.
But he had not received such an astronomical education as might
enable him to give us the geography of the country with the
precision desired. The Missouri and Columbia, which were to
constitute the tract of his journey, were rivers which varied little
in their progressive latitudes, but changed their longitudes rapidly
and at every step. To qualify him for making these observa-
tions, so important to the value of the enterprise, I encouraged
him to apply himself to this particular object, and gave him
letters to Doctor Patterson and Mr. Ellicott, requesting them to in-
struct him in the necessary processes. Those for the longitude
would of course be founded on the lunar distances. But as these
require essentially the aid of a time-keeper, it occurred to me that
during a journey of two, three, or four years, exposed to so many
accidents as himself and the instrument would be, we might ex-
pect with certainty that it would become deranged, and in a
desert country where it could not be repaired. I thought it then
highly important that some means of observation should be fur-
nished him, if any could be, which should be practicable aud
competejit to ascertain his longitudes in that event. The equa-
torial occurred to myself as the most promising substitute. I ob-
served only that Ramsden, in his explanation of its uses, and
particularly that of finding the longitude at land, still required
his observer to have the aid of a time-keeper. But this cannot
be necessary, for the margin of the equatorial circle of this in-
CORRESPONDENCE. 225
strument being divided into time by bonrs, minutes, and seconds,
supplies the main functions of the time-keeper, and for measur-
ing merely the interval of the observations, is such as not to be
neglected. A portable pendulum, for counting, by an assistant.
would fully answer that purpose. I suggested my fears to sev-
eral of our best astronomical friends, and my wishes that other
processes should be furnished him, if any could be, which might
guard us ultimately from disappointment. Several other methods
were proposed, but all requiring the use of a time-keeper. That
of the equatorial being recommended by none, and other duties
refusing me time for protracted consultations, I relinquished the
idea for that occasion. But, if a sound one, it should not be
abandoned. Those deserts are yet to be explored, and their ge-
ography given tQ the world and ourselves with a correctness
worthy of the science of the age. The acquisition of the coun-
try before Captain Lewis' departure facilitated our enterprise, but
his time-keeper failed early in his journey. His dependence,
then, was on the compass and log-line, with the correction of lat-
itudes only ; and the true longitudes of the different points of the
Missouri, of the Stony Mountains, the Columbia and Pacific, at
its mouth, remain yet to be obtained by future enterprise.
The circumstance which occasions a recurrence of the subject
to my mind at this time particularly is this : our legislature, some
time ago, came to a determination that an accurate map should
be made of our State. The late John Wood was employed on
it. Its first elements are prepared by maps of the several coun-
ties. But these have been made by chain and compass only,
which suppose the surface of the earth to be a plane. To fit
them together, they must be accommodated to its real spherical
surface ; and this can be done only by observations of latitude
and longitude, taken at different points of the area to which
they are to be reduced. It is true that in the lower and more
populous parts of the State, the method of lunar distances by the
circle or sextant, and time-keeper, may be used ; because those
parts furnish means of repairing or replacing a deranged time-
keeper, But the* deserts beyond the Alleghany are as destitute
VOL. vii. 1-5
226 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
of resource in that case, as those of the Missouri. The question
then recurs whether the equatorial, without the auxihary of a
time-keeper, is not competent to the ascertainment of longitudes
at land, where a fixed meridian can always be obtained ? and
whether indeed it may not everywhere at land, be a readier and
preferable instrument for that purpose ? To these questions [
ask your attentions ; and to show the grounds on which I enter-
tain the opinion myself, I will briefly explain the principles of
the process, and the peculiarities of the instrument which give it
the competence I ascribe to it. And should you concur in the
opinion, I will further ask you to notice any particular circum-
stances claiming attention in the process, and the corrections
which the observations may necessarily require. As to myself,
I am an astronomer of theory only, little versed in practical ob-
servations, and the minute attentions and corrections they require.
I proceed now to the explanation.
A method of finding the longitude of a place at land, imthout
a time-keeper.
If two persons, at different points of the same hemisphere, (as
Greenwich and Washington, for example,) observe the same ce-
lestial phenomenon, at the same instant of time, the difference of
the times marked by their respective clocks is the difference of
their longitudes, or the distance between their meridians. To
catch with precision the same instant of time for these simul-
taneous observations, the moon's motion in her orbit is the best
element ; her change of place (about a half second of space in
a second of time) is rapid enough to be ascertained by a good
instrument with sufficient precision for the object. But suppose
the observer at Washington, or in a desert, to be without a time-
keeper ; the equatorial is the instrument to be used in that case.
Again, we have supposed a cotemporaneous observer at Green-
wich. But his functions may be supplied by the nautical al-
manac, adapted to that place, and enabling us to calculate for
any instant of time the meridian distances there of the heavenly
bodies necessary to be observed for this purpose.
The observer at Washington, choosing the time when theii
CORRESPONDENCE. 227
position is suitable, is to adjust his equatorial to his meridian, to
his latitude, and to the plane of his horizon ; or if he is in a
desert where neither meridian nor latitude is yet ascertained, the
advantages of this noble instrument are, that it enables him to
find both in the course of a few hom-s. Thus prepared, let him
ascertain by observation the right ascension of the moon from
that of a known star, or their horary distance ; and, at the same
instant, her horary distance from his meridian. Her right ascen-
sion at the instant thus ascertained, enter with that of the nautical
almanac, and calculate, by its tables, what was her horary dis-
tance from the meridian of Greenwich at the instant she had at-
tained that point of right ascension, or that horary distance from
the same star. The addition of these meridian distances, if the
moon was between the two meridians, or the subtraction of the
lesser from the greater, if she was on the same side of both, is
the differences of their longitudes.
This general theory admits different cases, of which the ob-
server may avail himself, according to the particular position of
the heavenly bodies at the moment of observation.
Case 1st. When the moon is on his meridian, or on that of
Greenwich.
Second. When the star is on either meridian.
Third. When the moon and star are on the same side of his
meridian.
Fourth. When they are on different sides.
For instantaneousness of observation, the equatorial has great
advantage over the circle or sextant ; for being truly placed in
the meridian beforehand, the telescope may be directed suf-
ficiently in advance of the moon's motion, for time to note its
place on the equatorial circle, before she attains that point. Then
observe, until her limb touches the cross-hairs ; and in that in-
stant direct the telescope to the star ; that completes the observa-
tion, and the place of the star mxay be read at leisure. The ap-
paratus for correcting the effects of refraction and parallax, which
is fixed on the eye-tube of the telescope, saves time by render-
228 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
ing the notation of altitudes unnecessary, and dispenses with the
use of either a time-keeper or portable pendulum.
I have observed that, if placed in a desert where neither me-
ridian nor latitude is yet ascertained, the equatorial enables the
observer to find both in a few hours. For the latitude, adjust
by the cross-levels the azimuth plane of the instrument to the
horizon of the place. Bring down the equatorial plane to an ex-
act parallelism with it, its pole then becoming vertical. By the
nut and pinion commanding it, and by that of the semi-circle of
declination, direct the telescope to the sun. Follow its path
with the telescope by the combined use of these two pinions,
and when it has attained its greatest altitude, calculate the lati-
tude as when taken by a sextant.
For finding the meridian, set the azimuth circle to the hori-
zon, elevate the equatorial circle to the complement of the lati-
tude, and fix it by the clamp and tightening screw of the two
brass segments of arches below. By the declination semicircle
set the telescope to the sun's declination of the moment. Turn
the instrument towards the meridian by guess, and by the com-
bined movement of the equatorial and azimuth circles direct the
telescope to the sun, then by the pinion of the equatorial alone,
follow the path of the sun with the telescope. If it swerves from
that path, turn the azimuth circle until it shall follow the sun ac-
curately. A distant stake or tree should mark the meridian, to
guard against its loss by any accidental jostle of the instrument.
The 12 o'clock line will then be in the true meridian, and the
axis of the equatorial circle will be parallel with that of the earth.
The instrument is then in its true position for the observations
of the night. To the competence and the advantages of this
method, I will only add that these instruments are high-priced.
Mine cost thirty-five guineas in Ramsden's shop, a little before
the Revolution. I will lengthen my letter, already too long, only
by assurances of my great esteem and respect.
CORRESPONDENCE, 229
TO NICHOLAS.
JIdntioei.i.o, Decemler 11, 1821
Dear Sir, — Your letter of December the 19th places me un-
der a dilemma, which I cannot solve but by an exposition of the
naked truth. I would have wished this rather to have remained
as hitherto, w jhout inquiry ; but your inquiries have a right to
be answered. I will do it as exactly as the great lapse of time
and a waning memory will enable me. I may misremember in-
different circumstances, but can be right in substance.
At the time when the republicans of our country were so much
alarmed at the proceedings of the federal ascendency in Congress,
in the executive and the judiciary departments, it became a mat-
ter of serious consideration how head could be made against
their enterprises on the constitution. The leading republicans in
Congress found themselves of no use there, brow-beaten, as they
were, by a bold and overwhelming majority. They concluded
to retire from that field, take a stand in the State legislatures,
and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The alien and sedi-
tion laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy be-
tween Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more inti-
mately confidential, than between any other two States of repub-
lican policy. Mr. Madison came into the Virginia legislature. I
was then in the Vice-Presidency, and could not leave my station.
But your father, Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and myself happening
to be together, the engaging the co-operation of Kentucky in an
energetic protestation against the constitutionality of those laws,
became a subject of consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me
strongly to sketch resolutions for that purpose, your father under-
taking to introduce them to that legislature, with a solemn as-
surance, which I strictly required, that it should not be known
from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered them to
him, and in keeping their origin secret, he fulfilled his pledge of
honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas asked me if 1
would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn
them. I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had
230 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
uugua.'dedly intimated it before to any one, I know not; but I
afterwards observed in the papers repeated imputations of them
to me ; on which, as has been my practice on all occasions of
imputation, I have observed entire silence. The question, in-
deed, has never before been put to me, nor should I answer it to
any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed by
it, and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be
■vithdrawn from public notice. Your father's zeal and talents
were too well known, to derive any additional distinction from
the penning these resolutions. That circumstance, surely, was
of far less merit than the proposing and carrying them through
the legislature of his State. The only fact in- this statement, on
which my memory is not distinct, is the time and occasion of
the consultation with your father and Colonel Nicholas. It took
place here I know ; but whether any other person was present,
or communicated with, is my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was
either with us, or consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to
minute details.
I fear, dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this
difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single
handed in the present assaults on the constitution. But its as-
saults are more sure and deadly, as from an agent seemingly pas-
sive and unassuming. May you and your cotemporaries meet
them with the same determination and effect, as your father and
his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve inviolate a con-
stitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and purity, will prove
in the end a blessing to all the nations of the earth. With these
prayers, accept those for your own happiness and prosperity.
TO MESSRS. GEORGE W. SUMMERS AND JOHN B. GARLAND.
MoN'nriii.i.u, Febnmry 27, 1822.
Gentlemen, — I have received your favor of the 18th, and am
duly sensible of the honor done my name by its association with
the institution formed in yoLU college for improvement in the art
OOERESPONDENCE. 231
of speaking. The efforts of the members will, I trust, give a
just reputation to the society and reflect on its name the honoi
which it cannot derive from it. In a country and government
like ours, eloquence is a powerful instrument, well worthy of the.
special pursuit of our youth. Models, indeed, of chaste and clas-
sical oratory are truly too rare with us ; nor do I recollect any re-
markable in England. Among the ancients the most perfect
specimens are perhaps to be found in Livy, Sallust and Tacitus.
Their pith and brevity constitute perfection itself for an audience
of sages, on whom froth and fancy would be lost in air. But in
ordinary cases, and with us particularly, more development is
necessary. For senatorial eloquence, Demosthenes is the finest
model ; for the bar, Cicero. The former had more logic, the
latter more imagination.
Of the eloquence of the pen we have fine samples in English.
Robertson, Sterne, Addison, are of the first merit in the diflerenl
characters of composition. Hume, in the circumstance of style
is equal to any ; but his tory principles spread a cloud over his
many and great excellencies. The charms of his style and mat-
ter have made tories of all England, and doubtful republicans
here.
You say that any advice which I could give you would be ac-
ceptable. But, for this, you cannot be in better hands than of
the worthy professors of your own college. Their counsels
would, I am sure, embrace everything I could ofler. It will not,
however, be a work of mere supereorgation if it will gratify you,
and will furnish a stronger proof of my desire to encourage you
in your laudable dispositions. Some thirty-six or thirty-seven
years ago, I had a nephew, the late Peter Carr, whose education
I directed, and had much at heart his future fortunes. Residing
abroad at the time in public service, my counsels to him were
necessarily communicated by letters. Searching among my papers
I find a letter written to him, and conveying such advice as I
thought suitable to the particular period of his age and educa-
tion. He was then about fifteen, and had made some progress
in classical reading. As your present situation may be somewhat
232 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
similar, you may find in that letter some thnjgs worth remember-
ing. I enclose you a copy therefore. It was written in haste, un-
der the pressure of official labors, and with no view of being
ever seen but by himself. It might otherwise have been made
more correct in style and matter. But such as it is, I place it at
your service, and pray you to receive it merely as a compliance
with your own request, and as a proof of my good will and of
my best wishes for your success in the career of life for which
you are so worthily and laudably preparing yourselves.
TO MB. EDWAED EVERETT, OF CAMBKIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.
MoNTfCKLLO, March 2, 1822.
I am thankful to you. Sir, for the very edifying view of Eu-
rope which you have been so kind as to send me. Tossed at
random by the newspapers on an ocean of uncertainties and false-
hoods, it is joyful at times to catch the glimmering of a beacon
which shows us truly where we are. De Pradt's Europe had
some effect in this way ; but the less as the author was less known
in character. The views presented by your brother unite our
confidence with the soundness of his observation and informa-
tion. I have read the work with great avidity and profit, and
have found my ideas of Europe in general, rallied by it to points
of good satisfaction. In the single chapter on England only,
where his theories are new, if we cannot suddenly give up all
our old notions, he furnishes us abundant matter for reflection
and a revisal of them. I have long considered the present crisis
of England, and the origin of the evils which are lowering over
her, as produced by enormous excess of her expenditures beyond
her income. To pay even the interest of the debt contracted,
she is obliged to take from the industrious so much of their earn-
mgs, as not to leave enough for their backs and bellies They
are daily, therefore, passing over to the pauper-list, to subfist on
the declining means of those still holding up, and when these
also shall be exhausted, what next ? Reformation cannot remedy
OOEEESPONDENOE. 233
this. It could only prevent its recurrence when once relieved
from the debt. To effect that relief I see but one possible and
just course. Considering the funded and real property as equal,
and the debt as much of the one as the other, for the holder
of property to give up one-half to those of the funds, and the
latter to the nation the whole of what it owes them. But this
the nature of man forbids us to expect without blows, and blows
will decide it by a promiscuous sacrifice of life and property.
The debt thus, or otherwise, extinguished, a rtal representation
introduced into the government of either property or people, or
of both, renouncing eternal war, restraining future expenses to
future income, and breaking up forever the consuming circle of
extravagance, debt, insolvency, and revolution, the island would
then again be in the degree of force which nature has measured
out to it, of respectable station in the scale of nations, but not at
their head. I sincerely wish she could peaceably get into this
state of being, as the present prospects of southern Europe seem
to need the acquisition of new weights in their balance, rather
than the loss of old ones. I set additional value on this volume,
inasmuch as it has procured me the occasion of expressing to you
my high estimation of your character, the interest with which I
look to it as an American, and the great esteem and respect with
which I beg leave to salute you.
TO JEDEDIAH MORSE.
MoxTiuKLLii, M:irdi 6, IS22.
SiE, — I have duly received your letter of February the 16th,
and have now to express ^my sense of the honorable station pro-
posed to my ex-brethren and myself, in the constitution of the
society for the civilization and improvement of the Indian triljes.
The object too expressed, as that of the association, is one which
I have ever had much at heart, and never omitted an occasion
of promoting while I have been in situations to do it with effect,
and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and retirement, would
234 JEFFERSON'S WOEEiS.
excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable plau of
raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state of
physical and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced
by circiunstances foreign to them. That the plan now proposed
is entitled to unmixed approbation, I am not prepared to say, after
mature consideration, and with all the partialities which its pro-
fessed object would rightfully claim from me.
I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation be-
tween private associations of laudable views and unimposing
numbers, and those whose magnitude may rivalize and jeopard-
ize the march of regular government. Yet such a line does exist.
I, have seen the days, they were those which preceded the revo-
lution, when even this last and perilous .engine became neces-
sary ; bat they were days which no man would wish to see a sec^
ond time. That was the case where the regular authorities of
the government had combined against the rights of the people,
and no means of correction remained to them but to organize a
collateral power, which, with their support, might rescue and se-
cure their violated rights. But such is not the case with our
government. We need hazard no collateral power, which, by a
change of its original views, and assumption of others we know
not how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready organized
and in force sutRcient to shake the established foundations of so-
ciety, and endanger its peace and the principles on which it is
based. Is not the machine now proposed of this gigantic stature ?
It is to consist of the ex-Presidents of the United States, the Vice
President, the Heads of all the executive departments, the mem-
bers of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the several States
and territories, all the members of both Houses of Congress, all
the general officers of the army, the commissioners of the navy,
all Presidents and Professors of colleges and theological semina-
ries, all the clergy of the United States, the Presidents and Sec-
retaries of all associations having relation to Indians, all com-
manding officers within or near Indian territories, all Indian su-
perintendents and agents ; all these ex- officio ; and as many pri-
vate individuals as will pay a certain price for membership. Ob-
CORRESPONDENCE. 235
serve, too, that the clergy will constitute* nineteen twentieths of
this association, and, by the law of the majority, may command
the twentieth part, which, composed of all the high authorities
of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted and
wielded by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both
as to purpose and process. Can this formidable array be revie wed
without dismay ? It will be said, that in this association will be
all the confidential officers of the government : the choice of the
people themselves. No man on earth has more im])licit confi-
dence than myself in the integrity and discretion of this chosen
band of servants. But is confidence or discretion, or is strict
limit, the principle of our constitution ? It will comprehend, in-
deed, all the functionaries of the government ; but seceded from
their constitutional stations as guardians of the nation, and acting
not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary so-
ciety, having no limit to their purposes but the same will which
constitutes their existence. It will be the authorities of the peo-
ple and all infl.uential characters from among them, arrayed on
one side, and on the other, the people themselves deserted by
their leaders. It is a fearful array. It will be said that these are
imaginary fears. I know they are so at present. I know it is as
impossible for these agents of our choice and unbounded confi-
dence, to harbor machinations against the adored principles of
our constitution, as for gravity to change its direction, and gravid
bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed imaginary, but
the example is real. Under its authority, as a precedent, future
associations will arise with objects at which we should shudder
at this time. The society of Jacobins, in another country, was
instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever kindled the
hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their purposes
which extended their association to the limits of the nation, and
rendered their power within it boundless ; and it was this powei
which degenerated their principles and practices to such enor-
* The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated at eight thou-
sand. The residue of this society at four hundred; but if the former number
be halved, the reasoning will be the same.
286 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
mities as never before could have been imagined. Yet these
were men, and we and oin* descendants will be no more. The
present is a case where, if ever, we are to guard against ourselves ;
not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be ; for who can
now imagine what we may become under circumstances not now
imaginable ? The object of this institution, seems to require so
hazardous an example as little as any which could be proposed.
The government is, at this time, going on with the process of
civilizing the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any
one of us is able to devise, and with resources more competent
than we could expect to command by voluntary taxation. Is it
that the new characters called into association with those of the
government, are wiser than these ? Is it that a plan originated
by a meeting of private individuals is better than that prepared by
the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not self-chosen,
but clothed with the full confidence of the people ? Is it that
there is no danger that a new authority, marching, independently,
along side of the government, in the same line and to the same
object, may not produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct
the operations of the government, or wrest the object entirely
from their hands ? Might wc not as well appoint a committee
for each department of the government, to counsel and direct its
head separately, as volunteer ourselves to counsel and direct the
whole, in mass ? And might we not do it as well for their for-
eign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian affairs ?
And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we
expect to see spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate
themselves in this and that of its functions ? In a word, why
not take the government out of its constitutional hands, associate
them indeed with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are
theirs, but insuring them to be our own by allowing them a
minor vote only.
These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so
irresistible, that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter,
without which I should not have obtruded an opinion) I have
not been able to withhold the expression of them. Not know-
CORRESPONDENCE. 237
irig the individuals who have proposed this plan, I cannot be con-
ceived as entertaining personal disrespect for them. On the con-
trary, I see in the printed list persons for whom [ cherish senti-
ments of sincere friendship, and others, for whose opinions and
purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet thinking as 1
do, that this association is unnecessary ; that the government is
proceeding to the same object under control of the law ; that
they are competent to it in wisdom, in means, and inclinatioii ;
that this association, this wheel within a wheel, is more likely to
produce collision than aid ; and that it is, in its magnitude, of
dangerous example ; I am bound to say, that, as a dutifid citizen,
I cannot in conscience become a member of this society, possess-
ing as it does my entire confidence in the integrity of its views.
I feel with awe the weight of opinion to which I may be op-
posed, and that, for myself, I have need to ask the indulgence of
a belief that the opinion I have given is the best result I can de-
duce from my own reason and experience, and that it is sincerely
conscientious. Repeating, therefore, my just acknowledgments
for the honor proposed to me, I beg leave to add the assurances
to the 'society and yourself of my highest confi.dence and con-
sideration.
TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
MoNTiCKLLo, Api-il 9, 1S22.
Dear General, — Your favor of March 28th was received on
the 7th instant. We failed in having a quorum on the 1st. Mr.
Johnson and General Taylor were laboring for Lithgow in Rich-
mond, and Mr. Madison was unwell. On the score of business
it was immaterial, as there was not a single measure to be pro-
posed. The loss was of the gratification of meeting in society
with those whom we esteem. This is the valuable effect of our
semi-annual meetings, jubilees, in fact, for feasting the mind and
fostering the best affections of the heart towards those who merit
them.
The four rows of buildings of accommodation are so nearly
288 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
completed^ that they are certain of being entirely so in the course
of the summer ; and our funds, as you have seen stated in our
last Report, are sufficient to meet the expense, except that the
delays in collecting the arrears of subscriptions oblige us to bor-
row temporarily from this year's annuity, which, according to
that Report, had another destination. These buildings done,
■we are to rest on our oars, and passively await the will of the
legislature. Our future course is a plain one. We have pro-
ceeded from the beginning on the sound determination to finish
the buildings before opening the institution ; because, once
opened, all its funds will be absorbed by professors' salaries, &c.,
and nothing remain ever to finish the buildings. And we have
thought it better to begin two or three years later, in the full ex-
tent proposed, than to open, and go on forever, with a half-way
establishment. Of the wisdom of this proceeding, and of its greater
good to the public finally, I cannot a moment doubt. Our part
then is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither
to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day,
assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us.
The councils of the legislature, at their late session, were poisoned
unfortunately by the question of the seat of government, and the
consequent jealousies of our views in erecting the large building
still wanting. This lost us some friends who feel a sincere in-
terest in favor of the University, but a stronger one in the ques-
tion respecting the seat of government. They seem not to have
considered that the seat of the government, and that of the Uni-
versity, are incompatible with one another ; that if the former
were to come here, the latter must be removed. Even Oxford
and Cambridge placed in the middle of London, they would be
deserted as seats of learning, and as proper places for training
youth. These groundless jealousies, it is to be hoped, will be
dissipated by sober reflection, during the separation of the mem-
bers ; and they will perceive, before their next meeting, that the
large building, without which the institution cannot proceed,
has nothing to do with the question of the seat of government.
If, however, the ensuing session should still refuse their patron-
COEEESPONDEFCE. 2Sf>
age, a second or a third will think better, and result fina_ly in
fulfilling the object of our aim, the securing to our country a full
and perpetual institution for all the useful sciences ; one which
will restore us to our former station in the confederacy. It may
be a year or two later indeed ; but it will replace us in full grade,
and not leave us among the mere subalterns of the league. Pa-
tience and steady perseverance on our part will secure the blessed .
end. If we shrink, it is gone forever. Our autumnal meeting
will be interesting. The question will be whether we shall re-
linquish the scale of a real University, the rallying centre of the
South and the West, or let it sink to that of a common academy.
I hope you will be with us, and give us the benefit of your firm
and enlarged views. I am not at all disheartened with what
has passed, nor disi^osed to give up the ship. We have only to
lie still, to do and say nothing, and firmly avoid opening. The
public opinion is advancing. It is coming to our aid, and
will force the institution on to consummation. The numbers
are great, and many from great distances, who visit it daily as
an object of curiosity. They become strengthened if friends,
converted if enemies, and all loud and zealous advocates, and
will shortly give full tone to the public voice. Our motto should
be "be not wearied with well-doing." Accept the assurance
of my affectionate friendship and respect.
TO MESSRS. RITCHIE AND GOOCH.
MnvTicKiLO, May 13, 1822.
Messes. Ritchie and Gooch, — I am thankful to you for the
paper you have been so kind as to send me, containing the ar-
raignment of the Presidents of the United States generally, as
peculators or accessories to peculation, by an informer who
masks himself under the signature of " a Native Virginian."
What relates to myself in this paper, (being his No. VI., and the
only No. I have seen) I had before read in the " Federal Repub-
lican" of Baltimore, of August 28th, which was sent to me by a
240 JEFFEESON'S WOPvKS.
friend, with the real name of the author. It was published there
during the ferment of a warmly-contested election. I considered
it, therefore, as an electioneering manosuvre merely, and did not
even think it required the trouble of recollecting, after a lapse
of thirty-three years, the circumstances of the case in which he
charges me with having purloined from the treasury of the Uni-
ted States the sum of $1,148. But as he has thought it worth
repeating in his Roll of informations against your Presidents
nominally, I shall give the truths of the case, which he has omit-
ted, perhaps because he did not know them, and ventured toe
inconsiderately to supply them from his own conjectures.
On the return from my mission to France, and joining the
government here, in the spring of 1790, I had a long and heavy
account to settle with the United States, of the administration of
their pecuniary affairs in Eurojie, of which the superintendence
had been confided to me while there. I gave in my accoiint
early, but the pressure of other business did not jDermit the ac-
counting officers to attend to it till October 10th, 1792, when we
settled, and a balance of $888 67 appearing to be due from me,
(but erroneously as will be shown,) I paid the money the same
day, delivered up my vouchers, and received a certificate of it.
But still the articles of my draughts on the bankers could be
only provisionally Tpast ; until their accounts also should be re-
ceived to be confronted with mine. And it was not till the 24th
of June, 1804, that I received a letter from Mr. Richard Har-
rison the auditor, informing me " that my accounts, as Minister
to France, had been adjusted and closed," adding, "the bill
drawn and credited by you under date of the 21st of October,
1789, for banco florins 2,800, having never yet appeared in any
account of the Dutch bankers, stand at your debit only as a pro-
visional charge. If it should hereafter turn out, as I incline to
think it will, that this bill has never been negotiated or used by
Mr. Grand, you will have a just claim on the public for its
value." This was the first intimation to me that I had too
hastily charged myself with that draught. I determined, how-
ever, as I had allowed it in my account, and paid up the balance
COERESPUNDENOE. 241
t had produced against me, to let it remain awhile, as there
Tfas a possibility that the draught might still he presented hy the
holder to the bankers ; and so it remained till I was near leaving
Washington, on my final retirement from the administration in
1809. I then received from the auditor, Mr. Harrison, the fol-
lowing note : " Mr. Jefferson, in his accounts as late Minister to
France, credited among other sums, a bill drawn by him on the
21st October, 1789, to the order of Grand & Co., on the bankers
of the United States at Amsterdam, f. Banco f. 2,800, equal with
agio to current florins 2,870, and which was charged to him pro-
visionally in the official statement made at the Treasury, in the
month of October, 1804. But as this bill has not yet been no-
ticed in any account rendered by the bankers, the presumption
is strong that it was never negotiated or presented for payment,
and Mr. Jefferson, therefore, appears justly entitled to receive the
value of it, which, at forty cents the gilder, (the rate at which it
was estimated in the above-mentioned statement.) amounts to
$1,148. Auditor's office, January 24th, 1809."
Desirous of leaving nothing unsettled behind me, I drew the
money from the treasury, but without any interest, although I
had let it lie there twenty years, and had actually on that error
paid $888 67, an apparent balance against me, when the true
balance was in my favor $259 33. The question then is, how
has this happened ? I have «xamined minutely and can state it
clearly.
Turning to my pocket diary I find that on the 21st day of
October, 1789, the date of this bill, I was at Cowes in England,
on my return to the United States. The entry in my diary is in
these words : " 1789, October 21st. Sent to Grand & Co., letter
of credit on Willinks, Yan Staphorsts and Hubbard, for 2,800
florins Banco." And I immediately credited it in my account
with the United States in the following words : " 1789, October
21. By my bill on Willinks, Van Staphorsts and Hubbard, in
favor of Grand & Co., for 2,800 florins, equal to 6,250 livres IS
sous." My account having been kept in livres and sous of France,
the auditor settled this sum at the current exchange, making it
VOL. vn. 16
242 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
,^1,14S This bill, drawn at Co-wes in England, had to pass
through London to Paris by the English and French mails, in
which passage it was lost, by some unknown accident, to which
it was the more exposed in the French mail, by the confusion
then prevailing ; for it was exactly at the time that martial law
was proclaimed at Paris, the country all up in arms, and execu-
tions by the mobs were daily perpetrating through town and
country. However this may have been, the bill never got to the
hands of Grand & Co., was never, of course, forwarded by them
to the bankers of Amsterdam, nor anything more ever heard of
it. The auditor's first conjecture then was the true one, that it
never was negotiated, nor therefore charged to the United States
in any of the bankers' accounts. I have now under my eye a
duplicate furnished me by Grand of his account of that date
against the United States, and his private account against my-
self, and I affirm that he has not noticed this bill in either of
these accounts, and the auditor assures us the Dutch bankers had
never charged it. The sum of the whole then is, that I drew a
bill on the United States bankers, charged myself with it on the
presumption it would be paid, that it never was paid however,
either by the bankers of the United States, or anybody else. It
was surely just then to return me the money I had paid for it.
Yet " the Native Virginian " thinks that this act of receiving
back the money I had thus through error overpaid, "ivas a pal-
pable and manifest act of moral turpitude, about which no two
honest, iinpartial men can possibly differ." I ascribe these hard
expressions to the ardor of his zeal for the public good, and as
they contain neither argument nor proof, I pass them over with-
out observation. Indeed, I have not been in the habit of notic-
ing these morbid ejections of spleen either with or without the
names of those venting them. But I have thought it a duty on
the present occasion to relieve my fellow citizens and my coun-
try from the degradation in the eyes of the world to which this
informer is endeavoring to reduce it by representing it as gov-
erned hitherto by a succession of swindlers and peculators. Nor
shall I notice any further endeavors to prove or to palliate this
OORRESPONDENCE. 243
palpable misinformation. I am too old and inert to undertake
minute investigations of intricate transactions of the last century ;
■ and I am not afraid to trust to the justice and good sense of my
fellow-citizens on future, as on former attempts to lessen me in
their esteem.
I ask of you, gentlemen, the insertion of this letter in your pa-
per ; and I trust that the printers who have hazarded the publica-
tion of the libel, on anonymous authority, will think that of the
answer a moderate retribution of the wrong to which they have
been accessory.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLO, June 1, 1822.
It is very long, my dear Sir, since I have written'to you. My
dislocated wrist is now become so stiff that I write slow and
with pain, and therefore write as little as I can. Yet it is due
to mutual friendship to ask once in awhile how we do ? The
papers tell us that General Starke is oflf at the age of 93. Charles
Thomson still lives at about the same age, cheerful, slender as a
grasshopper, and so much without memory that he scarcely rec-
ognizes the members of his household. An intimate friend of
his called on him not long since ; it was difficult to make him
recollect who he was, and, sitting one hour, he told him the
same story four times over. Is this life ?
" With lab'ring step
To tread our former footsteps ? pace the round
Eternal ? — to beat and beat
The beaten track ? to see what we have seen,
To taste the tasted ? o'er our palates to decant
Another vintage ?"
It is at most but the life of a cabbage ; surely not worth a wish.
When all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one,
sight, hearing, memory, every avenue of pleasing sensation is
closed, and athumy, debility and malaise left in their places, when
244 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
friends of our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around
us whom we know not, is death an evil ?
When one by one our ties are torn,
And friend from friend is snatched forlorn,
When man is left alone to mourn,
Oh ! then hew sweet it is to die I
When trembling limbs refuse their weight,
And films slow gathering dim the sight,
When clouds obscure the mental light
'Tis nature's kindest boon to die !
I really think so. I have ever dreaded a doting old age ; and
my health has been generally so good, and is now so good, that
I dread it still. The rapid decline of my strength during the last
winter has made me hope sometimes that I see laiid. During
summer I enjoy its temperature, but I shudder at the approach
of winter, and wish I could sleep through it with the Dormouse,
and only wake with him in spring, if ever. They say that
Starke could walk about his room. I am told you walk well
and firmly. I can only reach my garden, and that with sensible
fatigue. I ride, however, daily. But reading is my delight. I
should wish never to put pen to paper ; and the more because of
the treacherous practice some people have of publishing one's let-
ters without leave. Lord Mansfield declared it a breach of trust,
and punishable at law. I think it should be a penitentiary felo-
ny ; yet you will have seen that they have drawn me out into the
arena of the newspapers ; although I know it is too late for me to
buckle on the armor of youth, yet my indignation would not per-
mit me passively to receive the kick of an ass.
To turn to the news of the day, it seems that the Cannibals
of Europe are going to eating one another again. A war be-
tween Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the kite and
snake. Whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the
less for the world. This pugnacious humor of mankind seems
to be the law of his nature, one of the obstacles to too great mul-
tiplication provided in the mechanism of the Universe. The
cocks of the henyard kill one another up. Bears, bulls, rams, do
CORRESPONDENCE. 245
the same. And the horse, in his wild state, kills all the young
males, until worn down with age and war, some vigorous youth
kills him, and takes to himself the Harem of females. I hope
we shall prove how much happier for man the Q,uaker policy is,
and that the life of the feeder, is better than that of the fighter ;
and it is some consolation that the desolation by these maniacs
of one part of the earth is the means of improving it in other
parts. Let the latter be our office, and let us milk the cow,
while the Russian holds her by the horns, and the Turk by the
tail. God bless you, and give you health, strength, and good
spirits, and as much of life as you think worth having.
TO EEV. ME. WHITTEMOEE.
MoNTiCELio, -Tune 5, 1822.
I thank you. Sir, for the pamphlets you have been so kind as
to send me, and am happy to learn that the doctrine of Jesus
that there is but one God, is advancing prosperously among our
fellow citizens. Had his doctrines, pure as they came from him-
self, been never sophisticated for unworthy purposes, the whole
civilized world would at this day have formed but a single sect.
You ask my opinion on the items of doctrine in your catechism.
I have never permitted myself to meditate a specified creed.
These formulas have been the bane and ruin of the Christian
church, its own fatal invention, which, through so many ages,
made of Christendom a slaughter-house, and at this day divides
it into casts of inextinguishable hatred to one another. Witness
the present internecine rage of all other sects against the Unita-
rian. The religions of antiquity had no particular formulas of
creed. Those of the modern world none, except those of the re-
ligionists calling themselves Christians, and even among these
the Quakers have none. And hence, alone, the harmony, the
quiet, the brotherly aflfections, the exemplary and unschismatising
society of the Friends, and I hope the Unitarians, will follow their
happy example. With thtse sentiments of the mischiefs of
246 JEFFEE.SON'S WORKS.
creeds and confessions of faith, I am sure you will excuse mv
not giving opinions on the items of any particular one ; and that
you will accept, at the same time, the assurance of the high re-
spect and consideration which I bear to its author.
TO MESSES. RITCHIE AND GOOCH.
MoNTicELLO, June 10, 1822.
Messrs. Ritchie and Gooch, — In my letter to you of May
13th, in answer to a charge by a person signing himself " A Na-
tive Virginian," that on a bill drawn by me for a sum equivalent
to $1,148, the treasury of the United States had made double
payment, I supposed I had done as much as would be required
when I showed they had only returned to me money which I
had previously paid into the treasury on the presumption that
such a bill had been paid for me, but that this bill being lost or
destroyed on the way, had never been presented, consequently
never paid by the United States, and that the money was there-
fore returned to me. This being too plain for controversy, the
pseudo Native of Virginia, in his reply. No. 32, in the Federal
Republican of May 24th, reduces himself ultimately to the ground
of a double receipt of the money by me, first on sale or negotia-
tion of the bill in Europe, and a second time from the treasury.
But the bill was never sold or negotiated anywhere. It was not
drawn to raise money in the market. I sold it to nobody, received
no money on it, but enclosed it to Grand & Co. for some pur-
pose of account, for what particular purpose neither my memory,
after a lapse of thirty-three years, nor my papers enable me tc
say. Had I preserved a copy of my letter to Grand enclosing the
bill, that would doubtless have explained the purpose. But it
was drawn on. the eve of my embarkation with my family from
Cowes for America, and probably the hurry of preparation for
that did not allow me time to take a copy. I presume this be-
cause I find no such letter among my papers. Nor does any sub-
sequent correspondence with Grand explain it, because I had no
COEEESPONDENOE. 247
private account with him ; my account as minister being kept
with the treasury directly, so that he, receiving no intimation of
this bill, could never give me notice of its miscarriage. But,
however satisfactory might have been an explanation of the pur-
pose of the bill, it is unnecessary at least ; the material fact being
established that it never got to hand, nor was ever paid by the
United States.
And how does the Native Virginian maintain hL'i charge that
I received the cash when I drew the bilj. ? by unceremoniously
inserting into the entry of that article in my account, words of
his own, making me say in direct terms that I did receive the
cash for the bill. In my account rendered to the treasury, it is
entered in these words : " 1789, Oct. 1. By my bill on Willincks,
Van Staphorsts & Hubbard in favor of Grand & Co. for 2,800
florins, equal to 6,230 livres 18 sous ;" but he quotes it as stated
in my account rendered to and settled at the treasury, and yet
remaining, as it is to be presumed, among the archives of that
department, " By cash received of Grmid for bill on Willincks,
&c." Now the words " cash received of Grand " constitute
"the very point, the pivot, on which the matter turns," as him-
self says, and not finding, he has furnished them. Although the
interpolation of them is sufficiently refuted by the fact that Grand
was, at the time, in France, and myself in England, yet wishing
that conviction of the interpolation should be founded on official
document, I wrote to the auditor, Mr. Harrison, requesting an
official certificate of the very words in which that article stood
in my autograph account deposited in the office. I received yes-
terday his answer of the 3d, in which he says, " I am unable to
furnish the extract you require, as the original account rendered
by you of your pecuniary transactions of a public nature in Eu-
rope, together with the vouchers and documents connected with
it, were all destroyed in the Register's office in the memorable
conflagration of 1814. With respect, therefore, to the sum of
$1,148 in question, I can only say that, after full and repeated
examinations, I considered you as most righteously and justly
entitled to receive it. Otherwise, it will, I trust, be believed that
248 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
I could not have consented to the re-payment." Considering the
intimacy which the Native Virginian shows with the treasury
affairs, we might he justified in suspecting that he knew this
fact of the destruction of the original by fire when he ventured
to misquote. But certainly we may call on him to say, and to
show, from what original he copied these words : " cash received
from Grand "? I say, most assuredly, from none, for none such
ever existed. Although the original be lost, which would have
convicted him officially, it happens that when I made from my
rough draft a fair copy of my account for the treasury, I took
also, with a copying-machine, a press-copy of every page, which
I kept for my own use. It is known that copies by this well-
known machine are taken by impression on damp paper laid on
the face of the written page while fresh, and passed between
rollers as copper plates are. They must therefore be true fac
similies. This press-copy now lies before me, has .been shown
to several persons, and will be shown to as many as wish or are
willing to examine it ; and this article of my account is entered in
it in these words : " 1789, Oct. 1. By my bill on Willincks, Van
Staphorsts & Hubbard for 2,800 florins, equal to 6,230 livres 18
sous." An inspection of the account, too, shows that whenever
I received cash for a bill, it is uniformly entered " by cash re-
ceived of such an one, (fcc. ;" but where a bill was drawn to con-
stitute an item of account only, the entry is " by my bill on,
&c." Now to these very words " cash received of Grand," not
in my original but interpolated by himself, he constantly appeals
as proofs of an acknowledgment under my own hand that / re-
ceived the cash. In proof of this, I must request patience to read
the following quotations from his denunciations as standing in
the Federal Republican of May 24 :
Page 2, column 2, 1. 48 to 29 from the bottom, " he [Mr. J.]
admits in his account rendered in 1790 and settled in 1792, that
he had received the ' cash,'' [placing the word cash between in-
verted commas to have it marked particularly as a quotation]
that he had received the ' casK for the bill in question, and he
iocs not directly deny it now. Will he, can he, in the face of
CORRESPONDENCE. 249
his own declaration in writing to the contrary, publicly say that
he did not receive the money for this bill in Europe ? This is
the point on which the whole matter rests, the pivot on which
the arguments turn. If he did receive the money in Europe,
(no matter whether at Cowes or at Paris,) he certainly had no
right to receive it a second time from the public treasury of the
United States. This is admitted I believe on all sides. Now,
that he did receive the money in Europe on this bill, is proved
by the acknowledgrhent of the receiver himself, who credits the
amount in his account as settled at the treasury thus : " cash re-
ceived of Grand for bill on Willincks, Van Staphorsts, 2,876
gilders, 1,148 dollars.
Col. 3, 1. 28 to 21 from bottom. There is a plain diiference
in the phraseology of the account, from which an extract is
given by Mr. J. as above, and that which he rendered to the Trea-
sury. In the former he gives the credit thus, " Bjr my bills on
Willincks," &c. In the latter he states, " By cash received of
Grand for bill on Willincks, &c." There is a difference, indeed,
as he states it, but it is made solely by his own interpolation.
Col. 3, 1. 8, from bottom. " That Mr. Jefferson ^ould, in the
very teeth of the facts of the evidence before us, and in his own
breast, gravely say that he had paid the money for this bill, and
that therefore it was but just to return him the amount of it,
when he had, by his own acknowledgm,ent, sent it to Grand &
Co., and received the m,oney for it, is, I confess, not only matter
of utter astonishment but regret." I spare myself the qualifica-
tions which these paragraphs may merit, leaving them to be ap-
plied by every reader according to the feelings they may excite
in his own breast.
He proceeds : " And now to place this case beyond the reach
of cavil or doubt, and to show mA)st conclusively that he had
negotiated this bill in Europe, and received the cash for it there,
and that such was the understanding of the matter at the treasury
in 1809, when he received the money." These are his own ■
words. Col. 4, he brings forward the overwhelming fact " not
hitherto made public but stated from the most creditable and au-
250 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
thentic source, that one of the accounting officers of the treasury
suggested in writing the propriety of taking bond and security
from Mr. J., for indemnification of the United States against any
future claim on this bill. But it seems the bond was not taken,
and the government is now liable in law, and in good faith for
the payment of this bill to the rightful owner." How this sug-
gestion of taking bond at the treasury, so solemnly paraded, is
more conclusive proof than his own interpolation, that the cash
was received, I am so dull as not to perceive ; but I say, that had
the suggestion been made to me, it would have been instantly
complied with. But I deny his law. Were the bill now to be
presented to the treasmy, the answer would and should be the
same as a merchant would give : " You have held up this bill
three and thirty years without notice ; we have settled in the
meantime with the drawer, and have no effects of his left in our
hands. Apply to him for payment." On his application to me,
I should first inquire into the history of the bill ; where it had
been lurking for three and thirty years ? how came he by it ? by
interception ? by trover ? by assignment from Grand ? by pur-
chase ? from whom, when and where ? And according to his
answers I should either institute criminal process against him, or
if he showed that all was fair and honest, I should pay him the
money, and look for reimbursement to the quarter appearing
liable. The law deems seven years' absence of a man, without
being heard of, such presumptive evidence of his death, as to
distribute his estate, and to allow his wife to marry again. The
Auditor thought that twenty years non-appearance of a bill
which had been risked through the post-offices of two nations,
was sufficient presumption of its loss. But this self-styled native
of Virginia thinks that the thirty-three years now elapsed are
not sufficient. Be it so. If the accounting officers of the treas-
ury have any uneasiness on that subject, I am ready to ^ give a
bond of indemnification to the United States in any sum the
ofiicers will name, and with the security which themselves
shall approve. Will this satisfy the native Virginian ? or will
he now try to pick some other hole in this transaction, to shield
CORRESPONDENCE. 251
nimself from a candid acknowledgment, that in making up his
case, he suppUed hy gratuitous conjectures, the facts which were
not within his knowledge, and that thus he has sinned against
truth in his declarations before the public ? Be this as it may,
I have so much confidence in the discernment and candor of my
fellow-citizens, as to leave to their judgment, and dismiss from
my own notice any future torture of words or circumstances
which this writer may devise for their deception. Indeed, could
such a denunciation, and on such proof, bereave me of that con-
fidence and consolation, I should, through the remainder of life,
brood over the afilicting belief that I had lived and labored in
vain.
TO MR. GOODENOW.
MoNTicELLO, June 13, 1822.
Sir, — I thank you for the volume of American Jurisprudence,
which you have been so kind as to send me. I am now too old
to read books solidly, unless they promise present amusement or
future benefit. To me books of law offer neither. But I read
your 6th chapter with interest and satisfaction, on the question
whether the common law (of England) makes a part of the laws
of our general government ? That it makes more or less a part
of the laws of the States is, I suppose, an unquestionable fact.
Not by birthright, a conceit as inexplicable as the trinity, but by
adoption. But, as to the general government, the Virginia Re-
port on the alien and sedition laws, has so completely pulverized
this pretension that nothing new can be said on it. Still, seeing
that judges of the Supreme Court, (I recollect, for example. Els-
worth and Story) had been found capable of such paralogism, I
was glad to see that the Supreme Court had given it up. In the
case of Libel in the United States district Court of Connecticut,
the rejection of it was certainly sound ; because no law of the
general government had made it an offence. But such a case
might, I suppose, be sustained in the State Courts which have
state laws against libels. Because as to the portions of power
252 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
within each State assigned to the general government, the Presi-
dent is as much the Executive of the State, as their particular
governor is in relation to State powers. These, however, are
speculations with which I no longer trouble myself ; and there-
fore, to my thanks, I will only add assurances of my great res-
pect.
TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATEBHOUSE.
MoNTioELLO, June 26, 1822
Dear Sir, — I have received and read with thankfulness and
pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine.
Yet, however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a
sermon to the wind. You will find it is as difficult to inculcate
these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as
to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. I wish
success to both attempts, and am happy to learn from you tkat
the latter, at least, is making progress, and the more rapidly in
proportion as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and noise
about it. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the
happiness of man.
1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
3. That to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as
thyself, is the sum of religion. These are the great points on
which he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews. But
compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbour, are nothing.
3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible
the proposition, the more merit in its faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use. •
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals
to be saved, and certain others to be damned ; and that no crimes
of the former can damn them ; no virtues of the latter save.
Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian ? He
OOERESFONDENOE. 253
who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus ? . Or the
impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin ? Verily I say
these are the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door
into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are
mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion
made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from
Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have
driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily reject-
ed the supposed author himself, with the horrors so falsely im-
puted to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always
as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world
would now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed
country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its
creed and conscience to neither Kings nor priests, the genuine
doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not
a young man now living in the United States who will not die
an Unitarian.
But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-estab-
lished, its votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating for-
mulas of creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so
soon destroyed the religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a
mere Aceldama ; that they will give up morals for mysteries, and
Jssus for Plato. How much wiser are the Q,uakers, who, agree-
ing in the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, schismatize about
no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense,
suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of
feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom
of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its
charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who
love their neighbor ! I conclude my sermon with sincere assur-
ances of ray friendly esteem and respect.
254 JEFFEESON'S "WORKS.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTiCELLO, June 2*7, 1822.
Dear Sik, — Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great
satisfaction. For although I could not doubt but that the hand
of age was pressing heavily on you, as on myself, yet we like to
know the particulars and the degree of that pressure. Much re-
flectiin too, has been produced by your suggestion of lending
my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have generally great aver-
sion to the insertion of my letters in the public papers ; because
of my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be exhibited in
scenes on the public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the pre-
cept of Horace, '' solvere senescentem, mature sanus equum, ne
peccet ad extremum ridendus." In the present case, however, I
see a possibility that this might aid in producing the very quiet
after which I pant. I do not know how far you may suffer, as
I do, under the persecution of letters, of which every mail brings
a fresh load. They are letters of inquiry, for the most part, al-
ways of good will, sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but
much oftener from persons whose names are unknown to me,
but written kindly and civilly, and to which, therefore, civihty
requires answers. Perhaps, the better known failure of your
hand in its function of writing, may shield you in greater degree
from this distress, and so far qualify the misfortune of its disabili-
ty. I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, and a
curiosity was excited to count those received in a single year.
It was the year before the last. I found the number to be one
thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring
answers of elaborate research, and all to be answered with due
attention and consideration. Take an average of this number
for a week or a day, and I will repeat the question suggested by
other considerations in mine of the 1st. Is this life ? At best it
is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no end to his circle but
in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is paradise. It oc-
curs then, that my condition of existence, truly stated in that
letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions which
COBEESPONDENOE. 255
are so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a re-
lief would, to me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the
11th, equally interesting and affecting, should accompany that to
which it is an answer. The two, taken together, would excite
a joint interest, and place before our fellow-citizens the present
condition of two ancient servants, who having faithfully per-
formed their forty or fifty campaigns, stipendiis omnibus expletis,
have a reasonable claim to repose from all disturbance in the
sanctuary of invalids and superannuates. But some device should
be thought of for their getting before the public otherwise than
by our own publication. Your printer, perhaps, could frame
something plausible. ********'s name should be left blank, as
his picture, should it meet his eye, might give him pain. I con-
sign, however, the whole subject to your consideration, to do in
it whatever your own judgment shall approve, and repeat always,
with truth, the assurance of my constant and affectionate friend-
ship and respect.
TO WILLIAM T. BAHRT.
MoNTiCELLO, July 2, 1822.
SiE, — Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am
very thankful for the kindness of its expressions respecting my-
self. But it ascribes to me merits which I do not claim. I was
only of a band devoted to the cause of independence, all of whom
exerted equally their best endeavors for its success, and have a
common right to the merits of its acquisition. So also is the
civil revolution of 1801. Yery many and very meritorious were
the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our govern-
ment to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require
unremitting vigilance. Whether the sun-ender of our opponents,
their reception into our camp, their assumption of our name, and
apparent accession to our objects, may strengthen or weaken the
genuine principles of republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is
yet to be seen. I consider the party division of whig and tory
256 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
the most wholesome which can exist in any government, and
well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a more dan-
gerous character. We already see the power, installed for life,
responsible to no authority, (for impeachment is not even a scare-
crow,) advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great
object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid
by their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State
rights, and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the
ingulphing power of which themselves are to make a sovereign
part. If ever this vast country is brought under a single govern-
ment, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent
and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of sur-
face. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose be-
tween reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit of this
country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the canker is
become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the
body politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied.
Let the future appointments of judges be for four or six years,
and renewable by the President and Senate. This will bring
their conduct, at regular periods, under revision and probation,
and may keep them in equipoise between the general and special
governments. We have erred in this point, by copying England,
where certainly it is a good thing to have the judges independent
of the King. But we have omitted to copy their caution also,
which makes a judge removable on the address of both legislative
Houses. That there should be public functionaries independent
of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism in a.
republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency.
To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my
power to give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated,
and now stiffened wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that
I am obliged to decline everything possible requiring writing.
An act of our legislature will inform you of our plan of primary
schools, and the annual reports show that it is becoming com-
pletely abortive, and must be abandoned very shortly, after cost-
ing us to this day one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and
CORRESPONDENCE. 257
yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars a year more until it
shall be discontinued ; and if a single boy has received the ele-
ments of common education, it must be in some part of the coun-
try not known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed
the early predictions of its fate. But on this subject I must re-
fer you to others more able than I am to go into the necessary
details ; and I conclude with the assurances of my great esteem
and respect.
TO DOCTOB, WATERHOUSE.
MfhVTiCEi.LO, July 19, 1822.
Deae SiK, — An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist,
makes writing an operation so slow and painful to me, that I
should not so soon have troubled you with an acknowledgment
of your favor of the 8th, but for the request it contained of my
consent to the publication of my letter of June the 26th. No,
my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest of hornets
would it thrust my head ! the getiiis irritable vatum, on whom
argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in
matters of religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the
bodily wrongs of the world, but the redressment of mental va-
garies would be an enterprise more than Quixotic. J should as
soon undertake to bring the crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound un-
derstanding, as inculcate reason into that of an Athanasian. I
am old, and tranquility is now my sunimum bonum. Keep me,
therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his victim Ser-
Vbtus. Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Chris-
tianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop
off the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the
mythologists of the middle and modern ages. I am not aware
of the peculiar resistance to Unitarianism, which you ascribe to
Pennsylvania. When I lived in Philadelphia, there was a res-
pectable congregation of that sect, with a meeting-house and
regular service which I attended, and in which Doctor Priestley
VOL. Vll. 17
258 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
officiated to numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two
churches, and their pastor, author of an inestimable book on this
subject, was elected chaplain to the late Congress. That doc-
trine has not yet been preached to us : but the breeze begins to
be felt which precedes the storm ; and fanaticism is all in a
bustle, shutting its doors and windows to keep it out. But it
will come, and drive before it the foggy mists of Platonisni which
have so long obscured our atmosphere. I am in hopes that some
of the disciples of your institution will become missionaries to us,
of these doctrines truly evangelical, and open our eyes to what
has been so I'^ng hidden from them. A bold and' eloquent
preacher would be nowhere listened to with more freedom than
in this State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might need
a preparatory discourse on the text of " prove all things, hold
fast that which is good," in order to unlearn the lesson that reason
IS an unlawful guide in religion. They might startle on being
first awaked from the dreams of the night, but they Avould rub
their eyes at once, and look the spectres boldly in the face. The
preacher might be excluded by our hierophants from their churches
and meeting-houses, but would be attended in the fields by whole
acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from Cambridge
would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the tritheis-
tical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be
my welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem
and respect for you.
TO MR. THOMAS SKIDMAN.
.\l()NTK'n.M,o, Ang-ii-^t '29, 1822.
You must be so good, Sir, as to excuse me from entering into
the optical investigation which your letter of the 18th proposes-
The hand of age presses heavily on me. I have long withdrawn
my mind from speculations of that kind ; my memory is on the
wane. I am averse even to close thinking, and writing is be-
.;ome slow, laborious and painful. I will make then but a single
OORRESPOXDENOE. 259
suggestion on the subject of your proposition, to show my respect
o your request.
To distinct vision it is necessary not only that the visual angle
should be sufficient for the powers of the human eye, but that
there should be sufficient light also on the object of observatior.
In microscopic observations, the enlargement of the angle of
vision may be more indulged, because auxiliary light may be
concentrated on the object by concave mirrors. But in the case
of the heavenly bodies, we can have no such aid. The moon,
for example, receives from the sun but a fixed quantity of light.
In proportion as you magnify her surface, you spread that fixed
quantity over a greater space, dilute it more, and render the ob-
ject more dim. If you increase her magnitude infinitely, you
dim her face infinitely also, and she becomes invisible. When
under total eclipse, all the direct rays of the sim being intercepted,
she is seen but faintly, and would not be seen at all but for the
refraction of the solar rays in their passage through our atmos-
phere. In a night of extreme darkness, a house or a mountain
is not seen, as not having light enough to impress the limited
sensibility of our eye. I do suppose in fact that Herschel has
availed himself of the properties of the parabolic mirror to the
point beyond which its effect would be countervailed by the
diminution of light on the object. I barely suggest this element,
not presented to view in your letter, as one which must enter
into the estimate of the improved telescope you propose. You
will receive from the professional mathematicians whom you
have consulted, remarks more elaborate and profound, and must
be so good as to accept mine merely as testimonies of my respect.
TO MR. GEORGE F. HOPKINS.
MoN'TicKi.i.o, Seplomber 5, 1S2?.
Sir, — Your letter of August — , was received a few days ago.
Of all the departments of science no one seems to have been less
advanced for the last hundred years than that of meteorology.
260 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
The new chemistry indeed has given us a new principle of the
generation of rain, by proving water to be a composition of differ-
ent gases, and has aided our theory of meteoric lights. Elec-
tricity stands where Dr. Franklin's early discoveries . placed it,
except with its new modification of galvanism. Bat the phe-
nomena of snow, hail, halo, aurora borealis, haze, looming, &c.,
are as yet very imperfectly understood. I am myself an empiric
m natural philosophy, suffering my faith to go no further than
my facts. I am pleased, however, to see the efforts of hypothet-
ical speculation, because by the collisions of different hypothe-
ses, truth may be elicited and science advanced in the end.
This sceptical disposition does not permit me to say whether
your hypothesis for looming and the floating volumes of warm
air occasionally perceived, may or may not be confirmed by fu-
ture observations. More facts are yet wanting to furnish a solu-
tion on which we may rest with confidence. I even doubt as
yet whether the looming at sea and at land are governed by the
same laws. In this state of uncertainty, I cannot presume either
to advise or discourage the publication of your essay. This
must depend on circumstances of which you must be abler to
judge yourself, and therefore I return the paper as requested,
with assurances of my great respect.
TO MR. CHILES TERRIL.
MoN-noKLLo, Septembei- 25, 1822.
Sir, — I received on the 20th, your letter of the 13th, on the
question what is an east and west line ? which, you say, has
been a subject of discussion in the newspapers. I presume, how-
ever, it must have been a mere question of definition, and that
the parties have differed only in applying the same appellation to
different things. The one defines an east and west line to be on
a great circle of the earth, passing through the point of departure,
its nadir point, and the centre of the earth, its plane rectangular,
to that of the meridian of departure. The other considers an
CORRESPONDENCE. 261
east and "west line to be a line on the surface of the earth, bound-
ing a plane at right-angles with its axis, or a circle of latitude
passing through the point of departure, or in other words, a line
which, from the point of departure, passes every meridian at a
right-angle. Each party, therefore, defining the line he means,
may be permitted to call it an east and west one, or at least it
becomes no longer a mathematical but a philological question
of the meaning of the words east and west. The last is what
was meant probably by the east and west line in the treaty of
Ghent. The same has been the understanding in running the
numerous east and west lines which divide our different States.
They have been run by observations of latitude at very short in-
tervals, uniting the points of observation by short direct lines, and
thus constituting in fact part of a polygon of very short sides.
But, Sir, I do not pretend to be an arbiter of these learned
questions ; age has weaned me from such speculations, and ren-
dered me as incompetent as unwilling to puzzle myself with
them. Your claim on me as a quondam neighbor has induced
me to hazard thus much', not indeed for the newspapers, a vehicle
to which I am never willingly committed, but to prove my atten-
tion to your wishes, and to convey to you the assurances of my
respect.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFEESON.
MoNTKziLui, October 15, 1822.
Dear Sik, — I have long entertained scruples about writing this
letter, upon a subject of some delicacy. But old age has over-
come them at last.
You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built,
and the four captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and
Truxton, and Barry, &c., to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and
protect our commerce in the Mediterranean. I have always im
puted this measure to you, for several reasons. First, because
you frequently proposed it to me while we were at Paris, nego-
tiating together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly,
262 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only
indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secre-
tary of the Navy ; only four Heads of department. You were
Secretary of State ; Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury ; Knox.
Secretary of War ; and I believe Bradford was Attorney Gen-
eral. I have always suspected that you and Knox were in favor
of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was clear. But
Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment.
But his attachment to Knox, and his deference to yonr opinion,
for I know he had a great regard for you, might induce him to
decide in favor of you and Knox, even though Bradford united
with Hamilton in opposition to you. That Hamilton was averse
'£) the measure, I have personal evidence ; for while it was pend-
ing, he came in a hurry and a fit of impatience, to make a visit
to me. He said he was likely to be called upon for a large sum
of money to build ships of war, to fight the Algerines, and he
asked my opinion of the measure. I answered him that I was
clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of opinion, from
the commencement of the revolution, that a navy was the most
powerful, the safest and the cheapest national defence for this
country. My advice, therefore, was, that as much of the revenue
as could possibly be spared, should be applied to the building and
equipping of ships. The conversation was of some length, but it
was manifest in his looks and in his air, that he was disgusted
at the measure, as well as at the opinion that I had expressed.
Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse,
requesting him to procure a commission for her son, in the navy ;
that navy, says her ladyship, of which his father was the parent.
'■ For," says she, " I have frequently heard General Washington
say to my husband, the navy was your child." I have always
believed it to be Jefferson's child, though Knox may have assist-
ed in ushering it into the world. Hamilton's hobby was the
army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof
from his own lips, in many different conversations, some of them
of length, in which he always insisted that it was only building
CORRESPONDENCE. 263
and arming ships for the English. " Si quid novisti rectiiis istin
candidus imperii ; si non, his utere inecwm."
If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble
servant
TO ME. CORNELIUS CAMDEN BLATCHLT.
MiiNTii KLLii, October '21, 1322
Sir, — I return thanks for the pamphlet you have been so kind
as to send me on the subject of commonwealths. Its moral prin-
ciples merit entire approbation, its philanthropy especially, and
its views of the equal rights of man. That, on the principle of a
communion of property, small societies may exist in habits of
virtue, order, industry, and peace, and consequently in a state of
as much happiness as heaven has been pleased to deal out to im-
perfect humanity, I can readily conceive, and indeed, have seen
its proofs in various small societies which have been constituted
on that principle. But I do not feel authorized to' conclude from
these that an extended society, like that of the United States, or
of an individual State, could be governed happily on the same
principle. I look to the diffusion of light and education as the
resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, pro-
moting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man. That
every man shall be made virtuous, by any process whatever, is,
indeed, no more to be expected, than that every tree shall be
made to bear fruit, and every plant nom-ishment. The brier and
bramble can never become the vine and olive ; but their asperi-
ties may be softened by culture, and their properties improved to
usefulness in the order and economy of the world. And I do
hope that, in the present spirit of extending to the great mass of
mankind the blessings of instruction, I see a prospect of great
advancement in the happiness of the human race ; and that this
may proceed to an indefinite, although not to an infinite degree.
Wishing every success to the views of your society which their
hopes can promise, and thanking you most particularly for tne
264 JEFFERSOF'S WOEKS.
kind expressions of your letter towards myself, I salute you •with
assurances of great esteem and respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLO, November 1, 1822.
Dear Sir, — I have racked my memory and ransacked my pa-
pers, to enable myself to answer the inquiries of your favor of
October the 15th ; but to little purpose. My papers furnish
me nothing, my memory, generalities only. I know that while
I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our seafaring
men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the
opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should pro-
vide a naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order;
and on this subject we communicated together, as you observe.
When I returned to the United States and took part in the ad-
ministration under General Washington, I constantly maintained
that opinion ; and in December, 1790, took advantage of a refer-
ence to me from the first Congress which met after I was in of-
fice, to report in favor of a force sufficient for the protection of
our Mediterranean commerce ; and I laid before them an accurate
statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private. I
think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to
that extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colo-
nel Hamilton's opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your
recollections on that subject are certainly corroborated by his
known anxieties for a close connection with Great Britain, to
which he might apprehend danger from collisions between their
vessels and ours. Randolph was then Attorney General ; but his
opinion on the question I also entirely forget. Some vessels of
war were accordingly built and sent into the Mediterranean.
The additions to these in your time, I need not note to you, who
are well known to have ever been an advocate for the vooden
walls of ThemistO(,les. Some of those you added, were sold un-
ler an act of Congress passed while you were in office. I thought,
COERESPONDENOE. 265
afterwards, that the public safety might require some additional
vressels of strength, to be prepared and in readiness for the first
moment of a war, provided they could be preserved against the
decay which is unavoidable if kept in the water, and clear of the
expense of officers and men. With this view I proposed that
they should be built in dry docks, above the level of the tide
waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that places
for these docks should be selected where there was a command
of water on a high level, as that of the Tyber at Washington, by
which the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock.
But the majority of the legislature was against any addition to
the navy, and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted
against it on a principle of opposition. We are now, I under-
stand, building vessels to remain on the stocks, under shelter,
until wanted, when they will be laimched and finished. On my
plan they could be in service at an hour's notice. On this, the
finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our
navy. That of the late war, certainly raised our rank and char-
acter among nations. Yet a navy is a very expensive engine.
It is admitted, that in ten or twelve years a vessel goes to entire
decay; or, if kept in repair, costs as much as would build a new
one ; and that a nation who could count on twelve or fifteen
years of peace, would gain by burning its navy and building a
new one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by cir-
cumstances. Since my proposition for a force adequate to the
piracies of the Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in
our own seas for considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I
wish we could have a convention with the naval powers of Eu-
rope, for them to keep down the pirates of the Mediterranean,
and the slave ships on the coast of Africa, and for us to perform
the same duties for the society of nations in our seas. In this
way, those collisions would be avoided between the vessels of
war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant af-
fection and respect.
266 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
TO DOCTOR COOPEE.
MoNTuiELLo, November 2. 1822.
Dear Sir, — Your favor of October the 18th came to hand
yesterday. The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably
charged with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in somb
parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all. I had no idea, how-
ever, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom
of religion, it could have arisen to the height you describe. This
must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphe-
my and absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the impossi-
bility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of rea-
soning, irritable, and prone to denunciation. In Boston, how-
ever, and its neighborhood, Unitarianism has advanced to so
great strength, as now to humble this haughtiest of all religious
sects ; insomuch, that they condescend to interchange with them
and the other sects, the civilities of preaching freely and frequent-
ly in-each others' meeting houses. In Rhode Island, on the other
hand, no sectarian preacher will permit an Unitarian to pollute
his desk. In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chief-
ly among the women. They have their night meetings and
praying parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes
by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their
love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty
would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover. In our village
of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small
spice only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either
church or meeting-house. The court-house is the common tem-
ple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian and
Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in hymn-
ing their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others'
preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony. It is
not so in the districts where Presbyterianism prevails undivided-
ly. Their ambition and tyranny would tolerate no rival if they
had power. Systematical in grasping at an ascendency over all
other sects, they aim, like the Jesuits, at engrossing the educa-
COREESPONDENOE. 267
tion of the country, are hostile to every institatioii which hey
do not direct, and jealous at seeing others begin to attend at all
to that object. The diffusion of instruction, to which there is
now so growing an attention, will be the remote remedy to this
fever of fanaticism ; while the more proximate one will be the
progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the reli-
gion of the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
In our university you know there is no Professorship of Divin-
ity. A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea
that this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but against
all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Vis-
itors, to bring forward an idea that might silence this calumny,
which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to the in-
stitution. In our annual report to the legislature, after stating
the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any
religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging
the different religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professor-
ship of their own tenets, on the confines of the university, so near
as that their students may attend the lectures there, and have the
free use of our library, and every other accommodation we can
give them ; preserving, however, their independence of us and of
each other. This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in
an institution professing to give instruction in all useful sciences.
I think the invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid
intentions, and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by
bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of
other students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neu-
tralize their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion
of peace, reason, and morality.
The time of opening our university is still as uncertain as
ever. All the pavilions, boarding houses, and dormitories are
done. Nothing is now wanting but the central building for a
library and other general pm-poses. For this we have no funds,
and the last legislature refused all aid. We have better hopes of
the next. But all is uncertain. I have heard with regret of
disturbances on the part of the students in your seminary. The
268 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
article of discipline is the most diffioilt in American education
Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by parents
beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle tc
science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the rev-
olution. I look to it with dismay in our institution, as a breaker
ahead, which I am far from being confident we shall be able to
weather. The advance of age, and tardy pace of the public pa-
tronage, may probably spare me the pain of witnessing conse-
quences.
I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
TO JOHN CAMPBELL, ESQ,.
MoNTioELLo, Novembev 10, 1822.
Sib, — I have to acknowledge your favor of the 4th instant,
which gives me the first information I had ever received that the
laurels which Colonel Campbell so honorably won in the battle
of King's Mountain, had ever been brought into question by any
one. To him has been ever ascribed so much of the success of
that brilliant action as the valor and conduct of an able com-
mander might justly claim. This lessens nothing the merits of
his companions in arms, ofl[icers and soldiers, who, all and every
one, acted well their parts in their respective stations. I have no
papers on this subject in my possession, all such received at that
day having belonged to the records of the council, but I remem-
ber well the deep and grateful impression made on the mind of
every one by that memorable victory. It was the joyful annun-
ciation of that turn of the tide of success which terminated the
revolutionary war with the seal of our independence. The
slighting expression complained of, as hazarded by the venerable
Shelby, might seem inexcusable in a younger man, but he was
then old, and I can assure you, dear Sir, from mortifying experi-
ence, that the lapses of memory of an old man are innocent sub-
jects of compassion more than of blame. The descendants of
Colonel Campbell may rest thek heads quietly on the pillow of
CORRESPONDENCE. 269
his reaown. History has consecrated, and will forever preserve
it in the faithful annals of a grateful country. With the express-
ions of the high sense I entertain of his character, accept the as-
surance to youi'self of my great esteem and respect.
P. S. I received at the same time with your letter, one from
Mr. William C. Preston, on the same subject. Writing is so slow
and painful to me, that I must pray you to make for me my ac
knowledgments to him, and my request that he will consider this
as an answer to his as well as your favor.
TO JAMES SMITH.
N'oNTici-XLO. December 8. 18'2'2.
SiE, — I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject
of Unitarianism, and to express my gratification with your efforts
for the revival of primitive Christianity in your quarter. No his-
torical fact is better established, than that the doctrine of one
God, pure and uncompounded, was that of the early ages of
Christianity ; and was among the efficacious doctrines which
gave it triumph over the polytheism of the ancients, sickened
with the absurdities of their own theology. Nor was the unity
of the Supreme Being ousted from the Christian creed by the
force of reason, but by the sword of civil government, wielded
at the will of the fanatic Athanasius. The hocus-pocus phan-
tasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three
heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
thousands of martyrs. And a strong proof of the solidity of the
primitive faith, is its restoration, as soon as a nation arises which
vindicates to itself the freedom of religious opinion, and its ex-
ternal divorce from the civil authority. The pure and simple
unity of the Creator of the universe, is now all but ascendant in
the eastern States ; it is dawning in the west, and advancing to-
wards the south ; and I confidently expect that the present gen-
eration will see Unitariaxiism become the general religion of the
270 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
United States. The eastern presses are giving us many excel-
lent pieces on the subject, and Priestley's learned -writings on it
are, or should be, in every hand. In fact, the Athanasian para-
dox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible'
to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea
of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea ? He who
thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that
man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against
absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder,
is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullabihty,
which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason,
and the mind becomes a wreck.
I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe
in one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others
that of believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest
men, and that is the only point society has any right to look to. .
Although this mutual freedom should produce mutual indulgence,
yet I wish not to be brought in question before the public on this
or any other subject, and I pray you to consider me as writing
under that trust. I take no part in controversies, religious or po-
litical. At the age of eighty, tranquillity is the greatest good of
life, and the strongest of our desires that of dying in the good
will of all mankind. And with the assurance of all my good
will to Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and Tory, accept for
yourself that of my entire respect.
TO MB. EDWARD EVERETT.
Mdntickt.i.o, February 2'), 1823.
Dear Sib, — I have read with much satisfaction the reply of
Mr. Everett, your brother, to the criticisms on his work on the
ftate of Europe, and concur with him generally in the doctrines
of the reply. Certainly provisions are not allowed, by the con-
sent of nations, to be contraband but where everything is so, as
in the case of a blockaded town, with which all intercourse is
CORRESPONDENCE. 271
forbidden. On the question whether the principle of "free bot-
toms making free goods, and enemy bottoms enemy goods," is
now to be considered as established in the law of nations, I will
state to you a fact within my own knowledge, which may lessen
the weight of om* authority as having acted in the war of Prance
and England on the ancient principle " that the goods of an
enemy in the bottom of a friend are lawful prize ; while those
of a friend in an enemy bottom are not so." England became a
party in the general war against France on the 1st of February,
1793. We took immediately the stand of neutrality. We were
aware that our great intercourse with these two maritime nations
would subject us to harassment by multiplied questions on the
duties of neutrality, and that an important and early one would
be which of the two principles above stated should be the law
of action with us ? We wished to act on the new one of " free
bottoms free goods;" and we had established it in our treaties
with other nations, but not with England. We determined
therefore to avoid, if possible, committing ourselves on this ques-
tion until we could negotiate with England her acquiescence in
the new principle. Although the cases occurring were mr-
merous, and the ministers, Genet and Hammond, eagerly on the
watch, we were able to avoid any declaration until the massacre
of St. Domingo. The whites, on that occasion, took refuge on
board our ships, then in their harbor, with all the property they
could find room for ; and on their passage to the United States,
many of them were taken by British cruisers, and their cargoes
seized as lawful prize. The inflammable temper of Genet kin-
dled at once, and he wrote, with his usual passion, a letter re-
claiming an observance of the principle of " free bottoms free
goods," as if already an acknowledged law of neutrality. I
pressed him in conversation not to urge this point ; that although
it had been acted on by convention, by the armed neutrahty,
it was not yet become a principle of universal admission ; that
we wished indeed to strengthen it by our adoption, and were ne-
gotiating an acquiescence on the part of Great Britain : but if
forced to decide prematurely, we must justify ourselves by a
272 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
declaration of the ancient principle, and that no general consenl
of nations had as yet changed it. He was immoveable, and on
the 25th of July wrote a letter, so insulting, that nothing but a
determined system of justice and moderation would have pre-
vented his being shipped home in the first vessel. I had the
day before answered his of the 9th, in which I had been obliged
in our own justification, to declare that the ancient was the es-
tablished principle, still existing and authoritative. Our denial,
therefore, of the new principle, and action on the old one, wore
forced upon us by the precipitation and intemperance of Genet,
against our wishes, and against our aim ; and our involuntary
practice, therefore, is of less authority against the new rule.
I owe you particular thanks for the copy of you;: translation
of Buttman's Greek Grammar, which you have been so kind as
to send me. A cursory view of it promises me a rich mine of
valuable criticism. I observe he goes with the herd of gram-
marians in denying an Ablative case to the Greek language. I
cannot concur with him in that, but think with the Messrs.
of Port Royal who admit an Ablative. And why exclude it?
Is it because the Dative and Ablative in Greek are always of the
same form ? Then there is no Ablative to the Latin plurals, be-
cause in them as in Greek, these case's are always in the same
form. The Greeks recognized the Ablative under the appellation
of the niuKfu ixpuioFfixi/, which I have met with and noted from
some of the scholiasts, without recollecting where. Stephens,
Scapula, Hederic acknowledge it as one of the significations of
the word uif^uiut/ntuxo.. That the Greeks used it cannot be denied,
For one of multiplied examples which may be produced take the
following from the Hippolyttis of Euripides: " ^ul^ la i^o/iu, (}ixi;s
E ti, Kin uvinr on,; luo: ," " dlc quo modo justiticB clava percussit
eum," " quo modo" are Ablatives, then why not tw ijio ,« ? And
translating it into English, should we use the *Dative or Ablative
preposition ? It is not perhaps easy to define very critically
*See Buttman's Datives, p. 230, every one of which I sliould consider as nnder
-the accident or relation called Ablative, having no signification of approach ac-
cording to his definition of the Dative.
CORRESPONDENCE. 273
what constitutes a case in the declension of nonns. All agree
IS to the Nominative that it is simply the name of the thing. If
we admit that a distinct case is constituted by any accident or
modification which changes the relation which that bears to the
actors or action of the sentence, we must agree to the six cases
at least ; because, for example, to a thing, and from a thing are
very different accidents to the thing. It may be said that if
every distinct accident or change of relation constitutes a differ-
ent case, then there are in every language as many cases as there
are prepositions; for this is the peculiar office of the preposition.
But because we do not designate by special names all the cases
to which a noun is liable,' is that a reason why we should throw
away half of those we have, as is done by those grammarians
who reject all cases, but the Nominative, Genitive, and Accu-
sative, and in a less degree by those also who reject the Ablative
alone ? as pushing the discrimination of all the possible cases te
extremities leads us to nothing useful or practicable, I am con
tented with the old six cases, familiar to every cultivated Ian
guage, ancient and modern, and well understood by all. I ac-
Knowledge myself at the same time not an adept in the meta-
physical speculations of Grammar. By analyzing too minutely
we often reduce our subject to atoms, of which the mind loses
its hold. Nor am I a friend to a scrupulous purism of style. I
readily sacrifice the niceties of syntax to euphony and strength.
It is by boldly neglecting the rigorisms of grammar, that Tacitus
has made himself the strongest writer in the world. The Hy-
peresitics call him barbarous ; but I should be sorry to exchange
his barbarisms for their wise-drawn purisms. Some of his sen-
tences are as strong as language can make them. Had he scru-
pulously filled up the whole of their syntax, they would have
been merely common. To explain my meaning by an English
example, I will quote the motto of one, I believe, of the regi-
cides of Charles I., " Rebellion to tyrants is obedience t ) God."
Oorrect its syntax, " Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to
God," it has lost all the strength and beauty of the antithesis.
However, dear Sir, I profess again my want of familiarity with
VOL. VII. IS
274 JEFFERSON'S AVORKS.
these speculations ; I hazard them without confidence, and offe'
them submissively to your consideration and more practised
judgment.
Although writing, with both hands crippled, is slow and pain-
ful, and therefore nearly laid aside from necessity, I have been
decoyed by my subjects into a very long letter. What would
therefore have been a good excuse fdr ending with the first page
cannot be a bad one for concluding in the fourth, with the as-
surance of my great esteem and respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTiOELLO, Febviiary 25, 1823.
Dear Sir, — I received, in due time, your two favors of De-
cember the 2d and February the 10th, and have to acknowledge
for the ladies of my native State their obligations to you for the
enconiums which you are so kind as to bestow on them. They
certainly claim no advantages over those of their sister States,
and are sensible of more favorable circumstances existing with
many of them, and happily availed, which our situation does not
offer. But the paper respecting Monticello, to which you allude,
was not written by a Virginian, but a visitant from another
State ; and written by memory at least a dozen years after the
visit. This has occasioned some lapses of recollection, and a
confusion of some things in the mind of our friend, and particu-
larly as to the volume of slanders supposed to have been cut out
of newspapers and preserved. It would not, indeed, have been
a single volume, but an encyclopedia in bulk. But I never had
such a volume ; indeed, I rarely thought those libels worth read-
ing, much less preserving and remembering. At the end of
every year, I generally sorted all my pamphlets, and had them
bound according to their subjects. One of these volumes con-
sisted of personal altercations between individuals, and calum-
nies on each other. This was lettered on the back, " Personal-
ities," and is now in the library of Congress. I was in the habit,
CORRESPONDENCE. 275
also, while living apart from my family, of cutting out of the
newspapers such morsels of poetry, or tales, as I thought would
^jlease, and of sending them to my grandchildren, who pasted
them on leaves of blank paper and formed them into a book.
These two volumes have been confounded into one in the recol-
lection of our friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has height-
ened the scenes she visited, as well as the merits of the inhabit-
ants, to whom her society was a delightful gratification.
I have just finished reading O'Meara's Bonaparte. It places
him in a higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him.
I had thought him the greatest of all military captains, but an
indifferent statesman, and misled by unworthy passions. The
flashes, however, which escaped from him in these conversa-
tions with O'Meara, prove a mind of great expansion, although
not of distinct development and reasoning. He seizes results
with rapidity and penetration, but never explains logically the
process of reasoning by which he arrives at them. This book,
too, makes us forget his atrocities for a moment, in commisera-
tion of his sufferings. I will not say that the authorities of the
world, charged with the care of their country and people, had
not a right to confine him for life, as a lion or tiger, on the prin-
ciple of self-preservation. There was no safety to nations while
he was permitted to roam at large. But the putting him to death
in cold blood, by lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults
and deprivations, was a degree of inhumanity to which the pois-
onings and assassinations of the school of Borgia and the den of
Marat never attained. The book proves, also, that nature had
denied him the moral sense, the first excellence of well-organized
man. If he could seriously and repeatedly affirm that he had
raised himself to power without ever having committed a crime,
it proves that he wanted totally the sense of right and wrong.
If he could consider the millions of human lives which he had
destroyed or caused to be destroyed, the desolations of countries
by plunderings, burnings, and famine, the destitutions of lawful
rulers of the world without the consent of their constituents, to
place his brothers and sisters on their thrones, the cutting up of
276 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
established societies of men and jumbling them discordantly to-
gether again at his caprice, the demolition of the fairest hopes of
mankind for the recovery of their rights and amelioration of their
condition, and all the numberless train of his other enormities ;
the man, I say, who could consider all these as no crimes, must
have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
have been lifted to slay him.
You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of
my arm is well knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a dis-
couraging condition, kept entirely useless by an cedematous swell-
ing of slow amendment.
God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind
TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
MoNTicEi.Lo, March 4, 1823.
Deak Sir, — I delayed some time the acknowledgment of your
welcome letter of December 10th, on the common lazy principle
of never doing to-day what we can put oflf to to-morrow, until
it became doubtful whether a letter would find you at Charies-
ton. Learning now that you are at Washington, I will reply to
some particulars which seem to require it.
The North American Review is a work 1 do not take, and
which is little known in this State, consequently I have never
seen its observations on your inestimable history, but a reviewer
can never let a work pass uncensured. He must always make
himself wiser than his author. He would otherwise think it an
abdication of his office of censor. On this occasion, he seems to
have had more sensibility for Virginia than she has for herself;
for, on reading the work, I saw nothing to touch our pride or jeal-
ousy, but every expression of respect and good will which truth
could justify. The family of enemies, whose buzz you appre-
hend, are now nothing. You may learn this at Washington ;
and their military relation has long ago had the full-voiced con-
demnation of his own State. Do not fear, therefore, these in-
COREESPONDEN'OE. 277
sects. Wliat you write will be far above their grovelling sphere.
Let me, then, implore you, dear Sir, to finish your history of par-
ties, leaving the time of publication to the state of things you
may deem proper, but taking especial cure that we do not lose it
altogether. We have been too careless of our future reputation,
while our tories will omit nothing to place us in the wrong. Be-
sides the five-volumed libel which represents us as struggling for
of&ce, and not at all to prevent our government from being ad-
ministered into a monarchy, the life of Hamilton is in the hands
of a man who, to the bitterness of the priest, adds the rancor of
the fiercest federalism. Mr. Adams' papers, too, and his biogra-
phy, will descend of course to his son, whose pen, you know, is
pointed, and his prejudices not in our favor. And doubtless other
things are in preparation, unknown to us. On our part we are
depending on truth to make itself known, while history is taking
a contrary set which may become too inveterate for correction.
Mr. Madison will probably leave something, but I believe, only
particular passages of our history, and these chiefly confined to
the period between the dissolution of the old and commencement
of the new government, which is peculiarly within his knowl-
edge. After he joined me in the administration, he had no leis-
ure to write. This, too, was my case. But although I had not
time to prepare anything express, my letters, (all preserved) will
furnish the daily occurrences and views from my return from
Europe in 1790, till I retired finally from office. These will
command more conviction than anything I could have written
after my retirement ; no day having ever passed during that pe-
riod without a letter to somebody, written too in the moment,
and in the warmth and freshness of fact and feeling, they will
carry internal evidence that what they breathe is genuine. Se-
lections from these, after my death, may come out successively
as the maturity of circumstances may render their appearance
seasonable. But multiplied testimony, multiplied views will be
necessary to give solid establishment to truth. Much is known
to one which is not known to another, and no one knows every-
thing. It is the sum of individual knowledge which is to make
278 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
lip the whole truth, and to give its correct current through future
time. Then do not, dear Sir, withhold your stock of informa-
tion ; and I would moreover recommend that you trust it not to
a single copy, nor to a single depository. Leave it not in the
power of any one person, under the distempered view of an un-
lucky moment, to deprive us of the weight of your testimony,
and to purchase, by its destruction, the favor of any party or per-
sorij as happened with a paper of Dr. Franklin's.
I cannot lay down my pen without recurring to one of the
subjects of my former letter, for in truth there is no danger I ap-
prehend so much as the consolidation of our government by the
noiseless, and therefore unalarming, instrumentality of the su-
preme court. This is the form in which federalism now arrays
itself, and consolidation is the present principle of distinction
between republicans and the pseudo-republicans but real federal-
ists. I must comfort myself with the hope that the judges will
see the importance and the duty of giving their country the only
evidence they can give of fidelity to its constitution and integrity
in the administration of its laws ; that is to say, by every one's
giving his opinion seriatim and publicly on the cases he decides.
Let him prove by his reasoning that he has read the papers, that
he has considered the case, that in the application of the law to
■ it, he uses his own judgment independently and unbiased by
party views and personal favor or disfavor. Throw himself in
every case on God and his country ; both will excuse him for
error and value him for his honesty. The very idea of cooking
up opinions in conclave, begets suspicions that something passes
which fears the public ear, and this, spreading by degrees, must
produce at some time abridgment of tenure, facility of removal,
or some other modification which may promise a remedy. For
m truth there is at this time more hostility to the federal judi-
ciary, than to any other organ of the government.
I should greatly prefer, as you do, four judges to any greater
number. Great lawyers are not over abundant, and the multipli-
cation of judges only enable the weak to out-vote the wise, and
COKKESPONDENOE. 279
three concurrent opinions out of four gives a strong presumption
of right.
I cannot better prove my entire coniidence in your candor,
than by the frankness with which I commit myself to you, and
to this I add with truth, assurances of the sincerity of my great
esteem and respect.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
QuiNcy, March 10, 1823.
Dear Sir, — The sight of your well known hand writing in
your favor of 25th February last, gave me great pleasure, as it
proved your arm to be restored, and your pen still manageable.
May it continue till you shall become as perfect a Galvinist as I
am in one particular. Pqor Calvin's infirmities, his rheumatism,
liis gouts and sciatics, made him frequently cry out, Mon dieu,
jusqu'd quand. Lord, how long! Prat, once chief justice
of New York, always tormented with infirmities, dreamt that he
was situated on a single rock in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean.
He heard a voice :
"Why mourns the bard, Apollo bids thee rise,
Renounce the dust, and claim thy native skies.''
The ladies' visit to Monticello has put my readers in requisi-
tion to read to me Simons' travels in Switzerland. I, thought I
had some knowledge of that country before, but I find I had no
idea of it. How degenerated are the Swiss. They might de-
fend their country against France, Austria, and Russia ; neither
of whom ought to be sufiered to march armies over their moun-
tains. Those powers have practiced as much tyranny, and im-
morality, as even the emperor Napoleon did over them, or over
the royalists of Germany or Italy.
Neither France, Austria, or Spain, ought to have a foot of land
in Italy. All conquerors are alike. Every one of them. Jui-a
negat sihi lati, nihil non arrogat armis. We have nothing but
280 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
fables concerning Theseus, Bacchus, and Hercules, and even
Sesostris ; but I dare say that every one of them was as tyranni-
cal and immoral as Napoleon. Nebuchadnezzar is the first great
conqueror of whom we have anything like history, and he was
as great as any of them. Alexander and Ca3sar were more im-
moral than Napoleon. Zingis Khan was as great a conqueror as
any of them, and destroyed as many millions of lives, and thought
he had a right to the whole globe, if he could subdue it.
What are we to think of the crusades in which three millions
of lives at least were probably sacrificed. And what right had
St. Louis and Richard Cosur de Lion to Palestine and Syria
more than Alexander to India, or Napoleon to Egypt and Italy ?
Right and justice have hard fare in this Avorld, but there is a
power above who is capable and willing to put all things right
in the end ; et pour mettre chacun a sa place dans Vuniverse, and
I doubt not he will.
Mr. English, a Bostonian, has published a volume of his expe-
dition with Ishmael Pashaw, up the river Nile. He advanced
above the third cataract, and opens a prospect of a resurrection
from the dead of those vast and ancient countries of Abyssinia
and Ethiopia ; a free communication with India, and the river
Niger, and the city of Tombuctoo. This, however, is conjec-
ture and speculation rather than certainty ; but a free communica-
tion by land between Europe and India will ere long be opened.
A few American steamboats, and our Quincy stone-cutters would
soon make the Nile as navigable as our Hudson, Potomac, or
Mississippi. You see as my reason and intellect fails, my imag-
ination grows more wild and ungovernable, but my friendship
remains the same. Adieu.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicuLLO, April U, 1823.
De.\h Silt, — The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I
may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at
least in his exclamation of, •' Mon Dieu ! jusqu'u quand !" would
CORRESPONOENOE. 281
make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his
God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be ; or rather
his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false
God, he did. The being described in his five points, is not the
God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the creator and
benevolent governor of the world ; but a dasmon of malignant
spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all,
than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. In-
deed, I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to
atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, there
would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God. Now one-
sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians ; the other
five-sixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian
revelation, are without a knowledge of the existence of a God !
This gives completely a gain de cause to the disciples of Ocel-
lus, Timseus, Spinosa, Diderot and D'Holbach. The argument
which they rest on as triumphant and unanswerable is, that in
every hypothesis of cosmogony, you must admit an eternal pre-
existence of something ; and according to the rule of sound phil-
osophy, you are never to employ two principles to solve a diffi-
culty when one will suffice. They say then, that it is more
simple to believe at once in the eternal pre-existence of the world,
as it is now going on, and may forever go on by the principle of
reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe in the
eternal pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the world,
a being whom we see not and know not, of whose form, sub-
stance and mode, or place of existence, or of action, no sense in-
forms us, no power of the mind enables us to delineate or com-
prehend. Oil the contrary, I hold, (without appeal to revelation)
that when we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or
particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive
and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite
power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the
heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their com'se by the balance
of centrifugal and centripetal forces ; the structure of our earth it-
self, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere ; ani-
282 JEFFEKSON'S WORKS.
inal and vegetable bodies, examined in ail their minutest parti-
cles ; insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized aa
man or mammoth ; the mineral substances, their generation and
uses ; it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe,
that there is in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate
cause, a fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their
preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in their presejit
forms, and their regeneratiou into new and other forms. We see,
too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to
main-tain the universe in its course and order. Stars, well known,
have disappeared, new ones have come into view ; comets, in
their incalculable courses, may run foul of suns and planets, and
require renovation under other laws ; certain races of animals are
become extinct ; and were there no restoring power, all existences
might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should be re-
duced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are these evidences
of an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers
of men who have existed through all time, they have believed,
in the proportion of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis
of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of a
self-existent universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders
this more probable, than that of the few in the other hypothesis.
Some early Christians, indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-
existence of both the creator and the world, without changing
their relation of cause and effect. That this was the opinion of
St. Thomas, we are informed by Cardinal Toleta, in these words.
" Deus ah cBterno fuit jaTn omnipoteiis, sicut cum prodiixit mun-
dum. Ah aterno potuit producere mundwin. Si sol ah cBterno
esset, lumen ah aterno essel ; et si pes, similiter vesiigiuiii. At
lumen et vestigium ejfectiis sunt efficientis solis et pedis ; potuit
ergo cuiiij causa ceterna effectus co-ceierna esse. Cujus sefitentia
est S. Thomas theologorum, priinus." — Cardinal Toleta.
Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us,
that " God is a spirit." 4. John 24. But without defming what
a spirit is: ' Jipt uftu 'o ti toe." Down to the third century, we
know it was still deemed material ; but of a lighter, subtler mat-
OOREESPONDElSrOE. 283
ter than our gross bodies. So says Origeri, " Deus igittir, cui
anima similis est, juxta originem, reapte corporaks est; sed
graviorum tantuin ratione corporum incorporeus." These are
the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen. Origen him-
self says, " appellatio u^uiumnu apud nostras scriptores est inusl-
tata et incognita." So also TertuUian ; " quis autetn negahit
deum esse corpus etsi deus spiritus ? Spiritus etiam corporis
sui generis, in sua effigie." — Tertullian. These two fathers were
of the third century. Calvin's character of this Supreme Being
seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the reformation
of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those more
worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object
of Jesus in his discourses to the Jews ; and his doctine of the cos-
mogony of the world is very clearly laid down in the three first
verses of the first chapter of John, in these words : '■ 'Ei- uo/i; tji' i
loyog, Hul u )^6yoi ^i' TT^i)^ TOP htiiv , uui (:)toz^t oXuvik, Ovio^ ^r it' ufj/rf npog
Till' (-Jfni , Hum i< 01 itvTin' i-f ii' tTO- xul Xi-jolg ut' (0 ' fv^c- in i)ui)e 5i', v vt'j niei'.^^
Which truly translated means, " In the beginning God existed, and
reason [or mind] was with God, and that mind was God. This was
in the beginning with God. All things were created by it, and
without it was made not one thing which was made." Yet this
text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of Jesus, that the world
was created by the supreme, intelligent being, has been pervert-
ed by modern Christians to build up a second person of their
tritheism, by a mistranslation of the word in; r... One of its legit-
imate meanings, indeed, is " a word." But in that sense it makes
an unmeaning jargon ; while the other meaning, " reason," equal-
ly legitimate, explains rationally the eternal pre-existence of God,
and his creation of the world. Knowing how incomprehensible
it was that "a word," the mere action or articulation of the or-
gans of speech could create a world, th«y undertook to make of
this articulation a second pre-existing being, and ascribe to him,
and not to God, the creation of the universe. The atheist here
plumes himself on the uselessness of such a God, aqd the simpler
hypothesis of a self-existent universe. The truth is, that the
greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those, calling them-
284 JEFFERSON'S "R^ORKS.
selves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the
structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and
without any foundation in his genuine words. And the day will
come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with
the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.
But we may hope that the dawn of reason, and freedom of
thought in these United States, will do away all this artificial
scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines
of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
So much for your quotation of Calvin's " mon Dieu ! jusqu'd,
quand !" in which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our
God, I join you cordially, and await his time and will with more
readiness than reluctance. May we meet there again, in Con-
gress, with our ancient colleagues, and receive with them the
seal of approbation, " well done, good and faithful servants."
TO GENERAL SAMUEL SMITH.
MoNTiOELLo, May 3, 1823.
Dear General, — I duly received your favor of the 24th ult.
But I am rendered a slow correspondent by the loss of the use,
totally of the one, and almost totally of the other wrist, which
renders writing scarcely and painfully practicable. I learn with
great satisfaction that wholsome economies have been found,
sufficient to relieve us from the ruinous necessity of adding an-
nually to our debt by new loans. The deviser of so salutary a
relief deserves truly well of his country. I shall be glad, too, if
an additional tax of one-fourth of a dollar a gallon on whiskey
shall enable us to meet all our engagements with punctuality.
Viewing that tax as an article in a system of excise, I was
once glad to see it fall with the rest of the system, which I con-
sidered as prematurely and unnecessarily introduced. It was evi-
dent that our existing taxes were then equal to our existing debts.
It was clearly foreseen also that the surplus from excise would
CORRESPOT^DENOE. 285
only become aliment for useless offices, and would be swallowed
in idleness by those whom it would withdraw from useful indus-
try. Considering it only as a fiscal measare, this was right. But
the prostration of body and mind which the cheapness of this
liquor is spreading through the mass of our citizens, now calls
the attention of the legislator on a very different principle. One
of his important duties is as guardian of those who from causes
susceptible of precise definition, cannot take care of themselves.
Such are infants, maniacs, gamblers, drunkards. The last, as
much as the maniac, requires restrictive measures to save him
from the fatal infatuation under which he is destroying his health,
his morals, his family, and his usefulness to society. One pow-
erful obstacle to his ruinous self-indulgence would be a price be-
yond his competence. As a sanatory measure, therefore, it be-
comes one of duty in the public guardians. Yet I do not think
it follows necessarily that imported spirits should be subjected to
similar enhancement, until they become as cheap as those made
at home. A tax on whiskey is to discourage its consumption ; a
tax on foreign spirits encourages whiskey by removing its rival
from competition. The price and present duty throw foreign
spirits already out of competition with whiskey, and accordingly
they are used but tc a salutary extent. You see no persons be-
sotting themselves with imported spirits, wines, liquors, cordials,
&c. Whiskey claims to itself alone the exclusive office of sot-
making. Foreign spirits, wines, teas, coffee, segars, salt, are ar-
ticles of as innocent consumption as broadcloths and silks and
onght, like them, to pay but the average ad valoi'em duty of
other imported comforts. All of them are ingredients in our hap-
piness, and the government which steps out of the ranks of the
ordinary articles of consumption to select and lay under dispro-
portionate burthens a particular one, because it is a comfort,
pleasing to the taste, or necessary to health, and will therefore
be bought, is, in that particular, a tyranny. Taxes on consump-
tion like those on capital or income, to be just, must be uniform.
I do not mean to say that it may not be for the general interest
to foster for awhile certain infant manufactures, untU they are
286 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
strong enough to stand against foreign rivals ; but wlien evident
that they will never be so, it is against right, to make the other
branches of industry support them. When it was found that
France could not make sugar under 6 h. a lb., was it not tyran-
ny to restrain her citizens from importing at 1 h. ? or would it
not have been so to have laid a duty of 5 h. on the imported ?
The permitting an exchange of industries with other nations is a
direct encouragement of your own, which without that, would
bring you nothing for your comfort, and would of course cease
to be produced.
On the question of the next Presidential election, I am a mere
looker on. I never permit myself to express an opinion, or to feel
a wish on the subject. I indulge a single hope only, that the
choice may fall on one who will be a friend of peace, of econo-
my, of the republican principles of our constitution, and of the
salutary distribution of powers made by that between the gener-
al and the local governments, to this, I ever add sincere prayers
for your happiness and prosperity.
TO MR. MEGEAK.
MoNTiCELi.n, May 29. 1823.
I thank you. Sir, for the copy of the letters of Paul and Ami-
cus, which you have been so kind as to send me, and shall learn
from them with satisfaction the peculiar tenets of the Friends,
and particularly their opinions on the incomprehensibilities
(otherwise called the mysteries) of the trinity. I think with
them on many points, and especially on missionary and Bible
societies. While we have so many around us, within the same
social pale, who need instruction and assistance, why carry to a
distance, and to strangers what our own neighbors need ? It is
a duty certainly to give our sparings to those who want ; but to
see also that they are faithfully distributed, and duly apportioned
to the respective wants of those receivers. And why give through
agents whom we know not, to persons whom we know not, and
CORRESPONDENCE. 287
in countries from which we get no account, when we can do it
at short hand, to objects under our eye, through agents we know,
and to supply wants we see ? I do not know that it is a duty
to disturb by missionaries the rehgion and peace of other coun-
tries, who may thinlc themselves bound to extinguish by fire
and fagot the heresies to which we give the name of conver-
sions, and quote our own example for it. Were the Pope, or hi?
holy allies, to send in mission to us some thousands of Jesuit
priests to convert us to their orthodoxy, I suspect that we should
deem and treat it as a national aggression on our peace and faith.
I salute you in the spirit of peace and good will.
TO THE PRESIDENT.
iroNTicKLi.o, June 11, 1823
Dear Sir, — Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a
twelvemonth before, I thought myself singularly unfortunate in
so timing my journey, as to have been absent exactly at the mo-
ment of your late visit to our neighborhood. The loss, indeed,
was all my own ; for in these short interviews, with you, I gen-
erally get my political compass rectified, learn from you where-
abouts we are, and correct my course again. In exchaiige for
this, I can give you but newspaper ideas, and little indeed of
these, for I read but a single paper, and that hastily. I find
Horace and Tacitus so much better writers than the champions
of the gazettes, that I lay those down to take up these with
great reluctance. And on the question you propose, whether
we can, in any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in
favor of liberty, I can give you but commonplace ideas. They
will be but the widow's mite, and offered only because requested.
The matter which now embroils Europe, the presumption of
dictating to an independent nation the form of its government,
is so arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as well as moral
sentiment, enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor of one,
and our equal execrations against the other. 1 do not know,
288 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
indeed, whether all nations do not owe to one another a bold
and open declaration of their sympathies with the one party,
and their detestation of the conduct of the other. But farther
than this we are not bound to go ; and indeed, for the sake of
the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or draw on
ourselves the power of this formidable confederacy. I have
ever deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take
active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests
are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their
balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and
principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are na-
tions of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the de-
struction of the labor, property and lives of their people. On our
part, never had a people so favorable a chance of trying the op-
posite system, of peace and fraternity with mankind, and the
direction of all our means and faculties to the purposes of im-
provement instead of destruction. With Europe we have few
occasions of collision, and these, with a little prudence and for-
bearance, may be generally accommodated. Of the brethren
of our own hemisphere, none are yet, or for an age to come will
be, in a shape, condition, or disposition t" war against us. And
the foothold which the nations of Europe nad in either America,
is slipping from under them, so that we shall soon be rid of their
neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at present to hold up a speck
of war to us. Its possession by Great Britain would indeed be
a great calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us in guar-
anteeing its independence against all the world, except Spain, it
would be nearly as valuable to us as if it were our own. But
should she take it, I would not immediately go to war for it ;
because the first war on other accounts will give it to us ; or the
island will give itself to us, when able to do so. While no duty,
therefore, calls on us to take part in the present war of Europe,
and a golden harvest offers itself in reward for doing nothing,
peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and interest. We may
gratify ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial to Spain as
would be justifiable without giving cause of war to her adver-
COREESPO^TDENCE. 289
sary ; we might and ought to avail ourselves of the happy occa-
sion of procuring and cementing a cordial reconciliation with
her, hy giving assurance of every friendly office which neu-
trality admits, and especially, against all apprehension of our
intermeddling in the quarrel with her colonies. And I expect
daily and confidently to hear of a spark kindled in France,
which will employ her at home, and relieve Spain from all fur-
ther apprehensions of danger.
That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted.
Her government is looking one way and rowing another. It is
curious to look back a little on past events. During the ascen-
dancy of Bonaparte, the word among the herd of kings, was
" sauve qui pent." Each shifted for himself, and left his brethren
to squander and do the same as they could. After the battle of
Waterloo, and the military possession of France, they rallied and
combined in common cause, to maintain each other against any
similar and future danger. And in this alliance, Louis, now
avowedly, and George, secretly but solidly, were of the con-
tracting parties ; and there can be no doubt that the allies are
bound by treaty to aid England with their armies, should insur-
rection take place among her people. The coquetry she is now
playing off between her people and her allies is perfectly under-
stood by the latter, and accordingly gives no apprehensions to
France, to whom it is all explained. The diplomatic corres-
pondence she is now displaying, these double papers fabricated
merely for exhibition, in which she makes herself talk of morals
and principle, as if her qualms of conscience would not permit
her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies, are all to gull her own
people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the five powers are the
actors, England the Tartufle, and her people the dupes. Playing
thus so dextrously into each others' hands, and their own persons
seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This
war is evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in
which England is also acting her part. " Save but the Nobles
and there shall be no war," says she, masking her measures at
VOL. VI[. 19
290 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
the same time under the form of friendship and mediation, and
hypocritically, while a party, oflfering herself as a judge, to betray
those whom she is not permitted openly to oppose. A fraudulent
neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will get from her.
And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks at it
rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage
of carrying coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude
and uninformed notions of things beyond my cognizance, only
be so good as to remember that it is at your request, and with as
little confidence on my part as profit on yours. You will do
what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act their follies
and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith
the paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are
willingly resigned, with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem
and respect.
TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
MoNTiCEi.t.o, June 12, 1823.
Dear Sir, — Our correspondence is of that accommodating
character, which admits of suspension at the convenience of
either party, without inconvenience to the other. Hence this
tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the 11th. I learn
from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on con-
tinuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of
us in preparations for placing their cause favorably before pos-
terity. Yet I hope even from some of them the escape of pre-
cious truths, in angry explosions or effusions of vanity, which will
betray the genuiae monarchism of their principles. They do
not themselves believe what they endeavor to inculcate, that we
were an opposition party, not on principle, but merely seeking
for ofHce. The fact is, that at the formation of our government,
many had formed their political opinions on European writings
and practices, believing the experience of old countries, and es-
pecially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer guide thai
CORRESPONDENCE. 291
mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in nu-
merous associations cannot be restrained within the Hmits of
order and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over
them by authorities independent of their will. Hence their or-
ganization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still furthei
to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary
to keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and
to take from them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as
that unremitting labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient
surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable life. And these
earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders in splen-
dor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite
in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of
superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these
lengths of opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some
less, on the way. And in the convention which formed our
government, they endeavored to draw the cords of power as tight
as Ihey could obtain them, to lessen the dependence of the gen-
eral functionaries on their constituents, to subject to them those
of the States, and to weaken their means of maintaining the
steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention had
deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. To re-
cover, therefore, in practice the powers which the nation had
refused, and to warp to their own wishes those actually given,
was the steady object of the federal party. Ours, on the con-
trary, was to maintain the will of the majority of the conven-
tion, and of the people themselves. We believed, with them,
that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights,
and with an innate sense of justice ; and that he could be re-
strained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers,
confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties
by dependence on his own will. We believed that the compli-
cated organization of kings, nobles, and priests, was not the
wisest nor best to effect the happiness of associated man ; that
wisdom and virtue were not hereditary ; that the trappings of
such a machinery, consumed by their expense, those earnings of
■292 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
industry, they were meant to protect, and, by the inequalities
they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance. We believed that
men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of their own
industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of law and
order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their
reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed,
than with minds nourished ia error, and vitiated and debased,
as in Europe, by ignorance, indigence and oppression. The
cherishment of the people then was our principle, the fear and
distrust of them, that of the other party. Composed, as we wet's,
of the landed and laboring interests of the country, we could not
be less anxious for a government of law and order than were the
inhabitants of the cities, the strongholds of federalism. And
whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our consti-
tution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
order and prosperity of our country determine. History may
distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts,
at justification of those who are conscious of needing it most.
Nor will the opening scenes of our present government be seen
in their true aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in pri-
vate hoards, shall be broken up and laid open to public view.
What a treasure will be found in General Washington's cabinet,
when it shall pass into the hajids of as candid a friend to truth as
he was himself ! When no longer, like Caesar's notes and memo-
randums in the hands of Anthony, it shall be open to the high
priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so much, and no
'more, as suits their views !
With respect to his farewell address, to the authorship of
which, it seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you
some facts. He had determined to decline a re-election at the
end of his first term, and so far determined, that he had requested
Mr. Madison to prepare for him something valedictory, to be ad-
dressed to his constituents on his retirement. This was done,
but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce in a second election,
to which no one more strenuously pressed him than myself, from
a 'conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer habit,
CORRESPONDENCE. 293
the respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his char-
acter only coiild effect. When, at the end of this second term,
his Valedictory came out, Mr. Madison recognized in it several
passages of his draught, several others, we were both satisfied,
were from the pen of Hamilton, and others from that of the Pres-
ident himself. These he probably put into the hands of Hamil-
ton to form into a whole, and hence it may all appear in Hamil-
ton's hand-writing, as if it were all of his composition.
I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists
were, 1st, to warp our government more to the form and princi-
ples of monarchy, and, 2d, to weaken the barriers of the State
governments as coordinate powers. In the first they have been
so completely foiled by the universal spirit of the nation, that
they have abandoned the enterprise, shrunk from the odium of
their old appellation, taken to themselves a participation of ours,
and under the pseudo-republican mask, are now aiming at their
second object, and strengthened by unsuspecting or apostate re-
cruits from our ranks, are advancing fast towards an ascendancy.
I have been blamed for saying, that a prevalence of the doc-
trines of consolidation would one day call for reformation or rev-
olution. I answer by asking if a single State of the Union
would have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers
to the General Government ? If the whole opposition to it did
not proceed from the jealousy and fear of every State, of being
subjected to the other States in matters merely its own ? And
if there is any reason to believe the States more disposed now
than then, to acquiesce in this general surrender of all their
rights and powers to a consolidated government, one and undi-
vided ?
You request me confidentially, to examine the question, wheth-
er the Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional
hmits, and trespassed on those of the State authorities ? I do
not undertake it, my dear Sir, because I am unable. Age and
the wane of mind consequent on it, have disqualified me from
investigations so severe, and researches so laborious. And it is
the less necessary in this case, as having been already done by
294 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
others with a logic and learning to which I could add nothing
On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of Virginiai
in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821,
Judge Roane, under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for
the Enquirer a series of papers on the law of that case. I con-
sidered these papers maturely as they came out, and confess that
ihey appeared to me to pulverize every word which had been
delivered by Judge Marshall, of the extra-judicial part of his
opinion ; and all was extra-judicial, except the decision that the
act of Congress had not purported to give to the corporation of
Washington the authority claimed by their lottery law, of con-
trolling the laws of the States within the States themselves. But
unable to claim that case, he could not let it go entirely, but
went on gratuitously to prove, that notwithstanding the eleventh
amendment of the constitution, a State could be brought as a de-
fendant, to the bar of his court ; and again, that Congress might
authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise legislation
within a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I cite
the sum and result only of his doctrines, according to the impres-
sion made on my mind at the time, and still remaining. If not
strictly accurate in circumstance, it is so in substance. This doc-
trine was so completely refuted by Roane, that if he can be an-
swered, I surrender human reason as a vain and useless faculty,
given to bewilder, and not to guide us. And I mention this par-
ticular case as one only of several, because it gave occasion to
that thorough examination of the constitutional limits between
the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for.
There were two other writers in the same paper, under the sig-
natures of Fletcher of Saltoun, and Somers, who, in a few es-
says, presented some very luminous and striking views of the
question. And there was a particular paper which recapitulated
all the cases in which it was thought the federal court had
usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will be found
in the Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th.
It is not in my present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie
can furnish them, I will procure and forward them. If they
OORRESPONDENOE. 295
had been read in the other States, as they were here, I think
they would have left, there as here, no dissentients from then
do'-trine. The subject was taken up by our legislature of
1821— '22, and two draughts of remonstrances were prepared
and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference
of opinion as to the matter of right ; but there was as to the
expediency of a remonstrance at that time, the general mind of
the States being then under extraordinary excitement by the
Missouri question ; and it was dropped on that consideration.
But this case is not dead, it only sleepeth. The Indian Chief
said he did not go to war for every petty injury by itself, but put
it into his pouch, and when that was full, he then made war.
Thank Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and rational
mode of redress.
This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case
to prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before
the court, is very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect an-
other instance, and the more particularly, perhaps, because it in
some measure bore on myself. Among the midnight appoint-
tnents of Mr. Adams, were commissions to some federal justices
of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed and sealed by
him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the de-
partment of State, on my entrance into office, and I forbade their
delivery. Marbury, named in one of them, applied to the Su-
preme Court for a mandamus to the Secretary of State, (Mr.
Madison) to deliver the commission intended for him. The
Court determined at once, that being an original process, they had
no cognizance of it ; and therefore the question before them was
ended. But the Chief Justice went on to lay down what the
law would be, had they jurisdiction of the case, to-wit : that they
should command the delivery. The object was clearly to in-
struct any other court having the jurisdiction, what they should
do if Marbury should apply to them. Besides the impropriety
of this gratuitous interference, could anj^thing exceed the perver-
sion of law ? For if there is any principle of law never yet con-
tradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to the validity
296 JEFFERSOIT'S WORKS.
of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it remains
in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is not a
deed, and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of
a third person it may be made an escrow. But whatever is in
the executive ofRces is certainly deemed to be in the hands of
the President ; and in this case, was actually in my hands, be-
cause, when I countermanded them, there was as yet no Secre-
tary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and Madison is con-
tinually cited by bench and bar, as if it were settled law, with-
out any animadversion on its being merely an obiter dissertation
of the Chief Justice.
It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of
words which shall decide at once, and with precision, in every
case, this limit of jurisdiction. But there are two canons which
will guide us safely in most of the cases. 1st. The capital and
leading object of the constitution was to leave with the States
all authorities which respected their own citizens only, and to
transfer to the United States those which respected citizens of
foreign or other States : to make us several as to ourselves, but
one as to all others. In the latter case, then, constructions should
lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will bear it ; and in
favor of the States in the former, if possible to be so construed.
And indeed, between citizens and citizens of the same State, and
under their own laws, I know but a single case in which a juris-
diction is given to the General Government. That is, where
anything but gold or silver is made a lawful tender, or the obli-
gation of contracts is any otherwise impaired. The separate leg-
islatures had so often abused that power, that the citizens them-
selves chose to trust it to the general, rather than to their own
si;ecial authorities. 2d. On every question of construction, carry
ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted,
recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, aud instead of try-
ing what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented
against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.
Let us try Cohen's case by these canons only, referring tdways,
however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
CORRESPONDENCE. 297
^. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a
law of his State. It was a domestic case, therefore, and not a
foreign one.
2. Can it be beheved, that under the jealousies prevailing
against the General Government, at the adoption of the constitu-
tion, the States meant to surrender the authority of preserving
order, of enforcing moral duties and restraining vice, within their
own territory ? And this is the present case, that of Cohen being
under the ancient and general law of gaming. Can any good
be effected by taking from the States the moral rule of their
citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority, or to one
of their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning of
words, hunting after possible constructions, and hanging infer-
ence on inference, from heaven to earth, like Jacob's ladder ?
Sach an intention was impossible, and such a licentiousness of
construction and inference, if exercised by both governments, as
may be done with equal right, would equally authorize both to
claim all power, general and particular, and break up the founda-
tions of the Union. Laws are made for men of ordinary under-
standing, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules
of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in
metaphysical subtleties, which may make anything mean every-
thing or nothing, at pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms
of advocates, whose trade it is, to prove that a defendant is a
plaintiff, though dragged into court, torto collo, like Bonaparte's
volunteers, into the field in chains, or that a power has been
given, because it ought to have been given, et alia talia. The
States supposed that by their tenth amendment, they had secured
themselves against constructive powers. They were not lessoned
yet by Cohen's case, nor aware of the slipperiness of the eels of
the law. I ask for no straining of words against the General
Government, nor yet against the States. I believe the States can
best govern our home concerns, and ^he General Government om*
foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that whole-
some distribution of powers established by the constitution for
the limitation of both ; and never to see all offices transferred to
2y8 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the peo.
pie, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market.
Bat the Chief Justice says, " there must be an ultimate arbiter
somewhere." True, there must ; but does that prove it is either
party ? The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Utiion, as-
sembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress,
or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they
mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And
it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our constitution,
to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other na-
tions is at once to force.
I rejoice in the example you set of seriatim opinions. I have
heard it often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some
of your brethren will be encouraged to follow it occasionally,
and in time, it may be felt by all as a duty, and the sound prac-
tice of the primitive court be again restored. Why should not
every judge be asked his opinion, and give it from the bench, if
only by yea or nay ? Besides ascertaining the fact of his opin-
ion, which the public have a right to know, in order to judge
whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the
opinions were unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly
the weight of their authority.
The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now
to relieve you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I
wonder how I have accomplished it, with two crippled wrists,
the one scarcely able to move my pen, the other to hold my pa-
per. But I am hurried sometimes beyond the sense of pain,
when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with me
in principle. You and I may dilier occasionally in details of
minor consetpence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are
the same in every feature. But our general objects arc the same,
to preserve the republican form and principles of our constitution
and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that has
estabhshed. These are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If
driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering. To my
prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I add those for the continua-
tion of your health, happiness, and usefulness to your country.
CORRESPONDENCE. 299
TO PRESIDENT MONEOE.
MoNTicBLi.o, June 23, 1823.
Deah Sir, — I have been lately visited by a Mr. Miralla, a na-
tive of Buenos Ayres, but resident in Cuba for the last seven or
eight years ; a person of intelligence, of much information, and
frankly communicative. I believe, indeed, he is known to you.
I availed myself of the opportunity of learning what was the
state of public sentiment in Cuba as to their future course. He
says they would be satisfied to remain as they are ; but all are
sensible that that cannot be ; that whenever circumstances shall
render a separation from Spain necessary, a perfect independance
would be their choice, provided they could see a certainty of
protection ; but that, without that prospect, they would be divid-
ed in opinion between an incorporation with Mexico, and with
the United States. — Columbia being too remote for prompt sup-
port. The considerations in favor of Mexico are that the Hav-
ana would be the emporium for all the produce of that immense
and wealthy country, and of course, the medium of all its com-
merce ; that having no ports on its eastern coast, Cuba would
become the depot of its naval stores and strength, and, in effect,
would, in a great measure, have the sinews of the government in
its hands. That in favor of the United States is the fact that
three-fourths of the exportations from Havana come to the Unit-
ed States, that they are a settled government, the power which can
most promptly succor them, rising to an eminence promising
future security ; and of which they would make a member of the
sovereigntv, while as to England, they would be only a colony,
subordinated to her interest, and that there is not a man in the
island who would not resist her to the bitterest extremity. Of
this last sentiment I had not the least idea at the date of my late
letters to you. I had supposed an English interest there quite as
strong as that of the United States, and therefore, that, to avoid
war, and keep the island open to our own commerce, it would
be best to join that power in mutually guaranteeing its independ-
ence. But if there is no danger of its falling into the possession
300 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
of England, I must retract an opinion founded on an error of
fact. We are surely under no obligation to give her, gratis, an
interest which she has not ; and the whole inhabitants being
averse to her, and the climate mortal to strangers, its continued
military occupation by her would be impracticable. It is better
then to lie still in readiness to receive that interesting incorpora-
tion when solicited by herself. For, certainly, her addition to
our confederacy is exactly what is wanting to round our power
as a nation to the point of its utmost interest.
I have thought it my duty to acknowledge my error on this
occasion, and to repeat a truth before acknowledged, that, retired
as I am, I know too little of the affairs of the world to form
opinions of them worthy of any attention ; and I resign myself
with reason, and perfect confidence to the care and guidance of
those to whom the helm is committed. With this assurance, ac-
cept that of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
TO GEOEGE TICKNOK.
MoNTiCKLLO, July 16, 1823.
Dear Sir, — I received in due time your favor of June 16th,
and with it your Syllabus of lectures on Spanish literature. I
have considered this with great interest and satisfaction, as it
gives me a model of course I wish to see pursued in the different
branches of instruction in our University, i. e. a methodical,
critical, and profotmd explanation by way of protection of every
science we propose to teach. I am not fully informed of the
practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall cer-
tainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly
every college and academy in the United States. That is, the
holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and
disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which
are to qualify them for the particular vocations to wJiich they
are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontroled
choice in the lectm-es they shall choose to attend, and requir*
C 0 R R E S P O K D E N C E . 301
elementary qualification only, and sufficient age. Our institu-
tion will proceed on the principle of doing all the good it can
without consulting its own pride or ambition ; of letting every
one come and listen to whatever he thinks may improve the con-
dition of his mind. The rock which I most dread is the disci-
pline of the institution, and it is that on which most of our pub-
lic schools labor. The insubordination of our youth is now the
greatest obstacle to their education. We may lessen the difficul-
ty, perhaps, by avoiding too much government, by requiring no
useless observances, none which shall merely multiply occasions
for dissatisfaction, disobedience and revolt by referring to the
more discreet of themselves the minor discipline, the graver to
the civil magistrates, as in Edinburg. On this head I am anxious
for information of the practices of other places, having myself
had little experience of the government of youth. I presume
there are printed codes of the rules of Harvard, and if so, you
would oblige me by sending me a copy, and of those of any
other academy which you think can furnish anything useful.
You flatter me with a visit "as soon as you learn that the Uni-
versity is fairly opened." A visit from you at any time will be
the most welcome possible to all our family, who remember with
peculiar satisfaction the pleasure they received from your former
one. But were I allowed to, name the time, it should not be de-
ferred beyond the autumn of the ensuing year. Our last build-
ing, and that which will be the principal ornament and keystone,
giving unity to the whole, will then be nearly finished, and af-
ford you a gratification compensating the trouble of the journey.
We shall then, also, be engaged in our code of regulations pre-
paratory to our opening, which may, perhaps, take place in the
beginning of 1825. There is no person from whose information
of the European institutions, and especially their disciphne, I
should expect so much aid in that difficult work. Come, then,
dear Sir, at that, or any earlier epoch, and give to our institution
the benefit of your counsel. I know that you scout, as I do.
the idea of any rivalship. Our views are Catholic for the im-
provement of our country by science, and indeed, it is better
802 .lEFFEESOK'S WORKS.
even for your own University to have its yoke nate at this dis-
tance, rather than to force a nearer one from the increasing ne-
cessity for it. And how long before we may expect others in
the southern, western, and middle regions of this vast country?
I send you by mail a print of the ground-plan of our institu-
tion ; it may give you some idea of its distribution and conven-
iences, but not of its architecture, which being chastely classical,
constitutes one of its distinguishing characters. I am much in-
debted for your kind attentions to Mr. Harrison ; he is a youth
of promise. I could not deny myself the gratification of com-
municating to his father the part of your letter respecting him.
Our family all join me in assurances of our friendly esteem
and great respect.
JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
QoiNcv, August 15, 1823.
Watchman, what of the night ? Is darkness that may be felt,
to prevail over the whole world ? or can you perceive any rays
of a returning dawn ? Is the devil to be the " Lord's anointed"
over the whole globe ? or do you foresee the fulfilment of the
prophecies according to Dr. Priestley's interpretation of them ? I
know not, but I have in some of my familiar, and frivolous let-
ters to you, told the story four times over ; but if I have, I never
applied it so well as now.
Not long after the denouement of the tragedy of Louis XTI,
when I was Vice-President, my friend the Doctor came to break-
fast with me alone ; he was very sociable, very learned and elo-
quent, on the subject of the French revolution. It was opening
a new era in the world, and presenting a near view of the mil-
lennium. I listened ; I heard with great attention and per-
fect sang froid. At last I asked the Doctor. Do you really
believe the French will establish a free democratical government
in France ? He answered : I do firmly believe it. Will you
give me leave to ask you upon what grounds you entertain this
CORRESPONDENCE. 303
opinion? Is it from anything you ever read in history? Is
there any instance of a Roman Catholic monarchy of five and
twenty millions at once converted into a free and national people ?
No. I know of no instance like it. Is there anything in your
knowledge of human nature, derived from books, or experience,
that any nation, ancient or modern, consisting of such multitudes
of ignorant people, ever were, or ever can be converted suddenly
into materials capable of conducting a free government, especial^
ly a democratical republic ? No — I know nothing of the kind.
Well then. Sir, what is the ground of your opinion ? The an-
swer was, my opinion is founded altogether upon revelation, and
the prophecies. I take it that the ten horns of the great beast in
revelations, mean the ten crowned heads of Europe ; and that the
execution of the King of France, is the falling oif of the first of
those horns ; and the nine monarchies of Europe will fall one af-
ter another in the same way. Such was the enthusiasm of that
great man, that reasoning machine. After all, however, he did
recollect hirtiself so far as to say : There is, however, a possibili-
ty of doubt ; for I read yesterday a book put into my hands, by
a gentleman, a volume of travels written by a French gentleman
in 1659 ; in which he says he had been travelling a whole year
in England; into every part of it, and conversed freely with all
ranks of people ; he found the whole nation earnestly engaged in
discussing and contriving a form of government for their future
regulations ; there was but one point in which they all agreed,
and in that they were unanimous: that monarchy, nobility,"
and prelacy never would exist in England again. The Doctor
paused ; and said : Yet, in the very next year, the whole nation
called in the King and run mad with nobility, monarchy, and
prelacy. I am no King killer ; merely because they are Kings.
Poor creatures; they know no better ; they believe sincerely and
conscientiously that God made them to rule the world. I would
not, therefore, behead them, or send them to St. Helena, to be
ti'eated as Bonaparte was ; but I would shut them up like the
man in the iron mask ; feed them well, give them as much finery
as they pleased, until they could be converted to right reason and
304 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
common sense. I have nothing to communicate from this part
of the country, except that you must not be surprised if you hear
something wonderful in Boston before long. With my profound
respects for your family, and half a century's affection for your-
self, I am your humble servant.
TO JAMES MADISON.
MoNTioKLi.o, August 30, 182.S.
DejVh Sib, — I received the enclosed letters from the President
with a request, that after perusal I would forward them to you
for perusal by yourself also, and to be returned then to him.
You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickerings' fourth of July
observations on the Declaration of Independence. If his princi-
ples and prejudices, personal and political, gave us no reason to
doubt whether he had tridy quoted the information he alleges to
have received from Mr. Adams, I should then say, that in some
of the particulars, Mr. Adams' memory has led him into unques-
tionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and forty-seven years
after the transactions of Independence, this is not wonderful.
Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage of
that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were
it not supported by written notes, taken by myself at the mo-
ment and on the spot. He says, " the committee of five, to wit,
Dr. Franklin, Sherman, Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed
the subject, and then appointed him and myself to make the
draught ; that we, as a sub-committee, met, and after the urgen-
cies of each on the other, I consented to undertake the task ; that
the draught being made, we, the sub-committee, met, and conned
the paper over, and he does not remember that he made or sug-
gested a single alteration." Now these details are quite incor-
rect The committee of five met ; no such thing as a sub-com-
mittee was proposed, but they unanimously pressed on myself
alone to undertake the draught. I consented ; I drew it ; but be-
fore I reported it to the committee, I communicated it separately
COERESPONDENOE. 305
to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections, be-
cause they were the two members of whose judgments and
amendments I wished most to have the benefit, before presenting
it to the committee ; and you have seen the original paper now
in my hands, with the corrections of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams
interlined in their own hand writings. Their alterations were
two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy,
reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to Con-
gress. ■ This personal communication and consultation with Mr.
Adams, he has misremembered into the actings of a sub-commit-
tee. Pickering's observations, and Mr. Adams' in addition, " thac
it contained no new ideas, that it is a common-place compilation,
its sentiments hacknied in Congress for two years before, and its
essence contained in Otis' pamphlet," may all be true. Of that
I am not to be the judge. Richard Henry Lee charged it as
copied from Locke's treatise on government. Otis' pamphlet I
never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from reading
or.reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither
book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as
any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to of-
fer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before. Had
Mr. Adams been so restrained. Congress would have lost the
benefit of his bold and impressive advocations of the rights of
Revolution. For no man's confident and fervid addresses, more
than Mr. Adams', encouraged and supported us through the difii-
culties surromding us, which, like the ceaseless action of gravity
weighed on us by night and by day. Yet, on the same ground,
we may ask what of these elevated thoughts was new, or can be
affirmed never before to have entered the conceptions of man ?
Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons
for declaring it, which make so great a portion of the instrument,
had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before the 4th of
July, '76, or this dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of me-
mory, let history say. This, however, I will say for Mr. Adams,
that he supported the Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting
fearlessly for every word of it. As to myself, I thought it a duty
VOL. vn. 20
306 JEFFERSON'S WORKb.
to be, on that occasion, a passive auditor of the opinions of others
more impartial judges than I could be, of its merits or demerits
During the debate I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, and he ob-
served that I was writhing a little under the acrimonious criti-
cisms on some of its parts ; and it was on that occasion, that by-
way of comfort, he told me the story of John Thompson, the
liatter, and his new sign.
Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth
of it expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the
other three-fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment
(the only one he approves), which recommends friendship to his
dear England, whenever she is willing to be at peace with us.
His insinuations are, that although " the high tone of the instru-
ment was in unison with the warm feelings of the times, this
sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never be for-
gotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne
in mind on every celebration of this anniversary." In other
words, that the Declaration, as being a libel on the government
of England, composed in times of passion, should now be buried
in utter oblivion, to spare the feelings of our English friends and
Angloman fellow-citizens. But it is not to wound them that we
wish to keep it in mind ; but to cherish the principles of the in-
strument in the bosoms of our own citizens : and it is a heavenly
comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly felt, as to
render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of memory
of Mr. Adams," worthy of being solemnly announced and sup-
ported at an anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-
day. In opposition, however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that
these principles may be eternal, and close the prayer with my
affectionate wishes for yourself of long life, health and happiness.
OORRESPOKDENuE. 307
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTiCf;n.o, September 4, 1823.
Deak Sie, — Your letter of August the 15th was received in
due time, and with the welcome of everything which comes
fro fl you. With its opinions on the difficulties of revolutions
fro/a despotism to freedom, I very much concur. The genera-
tion which commences a revolution rarely completes it. Habitu-
ated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind
to their kings and priests, they are not qualified when called on
to think and provide for themselves ; and their inexperience,
their ignorance and bigotry make them instruments often, in the
hands of the Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights
and purposes. This is the present situation of Europe and Span-
ish America. But it is not desperate. The light which has
been shed on mankind by the art of printing, has eminently
changed the condition of the world. As yet, that light has
dawned on the middling classes only of the men in Europe
The kings and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet re-
ceived its rays ; but it continues to spread, and while printing is
pjeserved, it can no more recede than the sun return on his course.
A first attempt to recover the right of self-government may fail,
so may a second, a third, &c. But as a younger and more in-
structed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and more
intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the
ever renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In France, the
first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the second by Bona-
parte, the third by Louis XYIII. and his holy allies : another is
yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the
spirit ; and all will attain representative government, more or
less perfect. This is now well understood to be a necessary
check on kings, whom they will probably think it more prudent
to chain and tame, than to exterminate. To attain all this,
however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation
pass over ; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of
desolation. For what inheritance so valuable, can man leave to
808 JEFFERSON'S WOEES.
his posterity ? The spirit of the Spaniard, and his deadly and
eternal hatred to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that
he will never submit, but finally defeat this atrocious violation
of the laws of God and man, under which he is suffering ; and
the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes, afford reasonable hope,
that that nation will settle down in a temperate representative
government, with an executive properly subordinated to that.
Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece, will follow suit,
You and I shall look down from another world on these glo-
rious achievements to man, which will add to the joys even
of heaven.
I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein
you say that the omission of his signature to the Declaration of
Independence was by accident. Our impressions as to this fact
being different, I shall be glad to have mine corrected, if wrong.
Jay, you know, had been in constant opposition to our laboring
majority. Our estimate at the time was, that he, Dickinson and
Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity, perseverance and par-
tiality to our English connection, had constantly kept us a year
behind where we ought to have been in our preparations and pro-
ceedings. From about the date of the Virginia instructions of
May the 15th, 1776, to declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented
himself from Congress, and never came there again until Decem-
ber, 1778. Of course, he had no part in the discussions or de-
cision of that question. The instructions to their Delegates by
the Convention of New York, then sitting, to sign the Declara-
tion, were presented to Congress on the 15th of July only, and
on that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay, by a let-
ter received from him, as they had done as early as the 29th of
May by another letter. And I think he had been omitted by
the convention on a new election of Delegates, when they
changed their instructions. Of this last fact, however, having
no evidence but an ancient impression, I shall not affirm it. But
whether so or not, no agency of accident appears in the case.
This error of fact, however, whether yours or mine, is of little
OOERESPONDENOE. S09
consequence to the public. But truth being as cheap as error, it
is as well to rectify it for our own satisfaction.
I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and
preceding month, from which I am entirely recovered except as
to strength.
TO WILLIAM SHORT.
MoNTioELLO, September 8, 1823.
Deab Sik, — Your favor of July 28th, from Avon, came to
hand on the 10th of August, and I have delayed answering it
on the presumption of your continued absence, but the approach
of the season of frost in that region has probably before this
time turned you about to the south. I readily conceive that by
the time of your return to Philadelphia, you will have had trav-
elling enough for the present, and therefore acquiesce in your
proposition to give us the next season. Your own convenience
is a sufficient reason, and an auxiliary one is that we shall then
have more for you to see and approve. By that time, our ro-
tunda, (the walls of which will be finished this month) will have
received its roof, and will show itself externally to some advan-
tage. Its columns only will be wanting, as they must await
their capitals from Italy. We have just received from thence,
and are now putting up, the marble capitals of the buildings we
have already erected, which completes our whole system, except
the rotunda and its adjacent gymnasia. All are now ready to
receive theii- occupants, and should the legislature, at their next
session, liberate our funds as is hoped, we shall ask but one year
more to procure our professors, for most of whom we must go to
Europe. In your substitution of Monticello instead of your an-
nual visit to Black Rock, I will engage you equal health, and a
more genial and pleasant climate ; but instead of the flitting,
flirting, and gay assemblage of that place, you must be contented
with the plain and sober family and neighborly society, with the
assurance that you shall hear no wrangling about the next presi-
dent, although the excitement on that subject will then be at its
310 JEFFERSON'S WOREiS.
acme. Numerous have been the attempts to entangle me in thai
imbroglio. But at the age of eighty, I seek quiet and abjure
contention. I read but a single newspaper, Ritchie's Enquirer,
the best that is published or ever has been published in America.
You should read it also, to keep yourself au fait of your own
State, for we still claim you as belonging to us. A city life offers
you indeed more means of dissipating time, but more frequent,
also, and more painful objects of vice and wretchedness. New-
York, for example, like London, seems to be a Cloacina of all
the depravities of human nature. Philadelphia doubtless has its
share. Here, on the contrary, crime is scarcely heard of, breaches
of order rare, and our societies, if not refined, are rational, moral,
and affectionate at least. Our only blot is becoming less offens-
ive by the great improvement in the condition and civilization
of that race, who can now more advantageously compare their
situation with that of the laborers of Europe. Still it is a hid-
eous blot, as well from the heteromorph peculiarities of the race,
as that, with them, physical compulsion to action must be sub-
stituted for the moral necessity which constrains the free laborers
to work equally hard. We feel and deplore it morally and polit-
ically, and we look without entire despair to some redeeming
means not yet specifically foreseen. I am happy in believing
that the conviction of the necessity of removing this evil gains
ground with time. Their emigration to the westward lightens
the difficulty by dividing it, and renders it more practicable on
the whole. And the neighborhood of a government of their
color promises a more accessible asylum than that from whence
they came. Ever and affectionately yours.
TO MB. THOMAS EARLE.
MoNTiCELLO, September 24, 1823.
SiH, — Your letter of August 28th, with the pamphlet ac-
sompanying it, was not received until the 18th instant.
That our Creator made the earth for the use of the living and
COREESPONDENCE. 311
not of the dead ; that those who exist not can have no use nor
right in it, no authority or power over it ; that one generation
of men cannot foreclose or burthen its use to another, which
comes to it in its own right and by the same divine beneficence ;
that a preceding generation cannot bind a succeeding one by its
laws or contracts ; these deriving their obligation from the will
of the existing majority, and that majority being removed by
death, another comes in its place with a will equally free to make
its own laws and contracts ; these are axioms so self-evident that
no explanation can make them plainer ; for he is not to be reas-
oned with who says that non-existence can control existence, or
that nothing can move something. They are axioms also preg-
nant with salutary consequences. The laws of civil society in-
deed for the encouragement of industry, give the property of the
parent to his family on his death, and in most civilized countries
permit him even to give it, by testament, to whom he pleases.
And it is also found more convenient to suffer the laws of our
predecessors to stand on our implied assent, as if positively re-
enacted, until the existing majority positively repeals them. But
this does not lessen the right of that majority to repeal whenever
a change of ch'cumstances or of will calls for it. Habit alone
confounds what is civil practice with natural right.
On the merits of the pamphlet I say nothing of course ; having
found it necessary to decline giving opinions on books even
when desired. For the functions of a reviewer, I have neither
time, talent, nor inclination, and I trust that on reflection your
indulgence will not think unreasonable my unwillingness to em-
bark in an office of so little enticement. With my thanks for the
pamphlet, be pleased to accept the assurance of my great respect.
TO MB. HUGH P. TATLOH.
JIosTiOELLO, October 4, 1 823.
Sm, — You must, I think, have somewhat misunderstood what
[ may have said to you as to manuscripts in my possession re-
812 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
latmg to the antiquities, and particularly the Indian antiquities
of our country. The only manuscripts I now possess are some
folio volumes, two of these are the proceedings of the Virginia
Company in England ; the remaining four are of the Records of
the Council of Virginia from 1622 to 1700. The account of
the two first volumes you will see in the preface to Stith's His-
tory of Virginia. They contain the records of the Virginia com-
pany, copied from the originals, under the eye, if I recollect
rightly, of the Earl of Southampton, a member of the company,
bought at the sale of his library by Doctor Byrd, of Westover,
and sold with that library to Isaac Zane. These volumes hap-
pened at the time of the sale, to have been borrowed by Colonel
R. Bland, whose library I bought, and with this, they were sent
to me. I gave notice of it to Mr. Zane, but he never reclaimed
them. I shall deposit them in the library of the university,
where they will be most likely to be preserved with care. The
other four volumes, I am confident, are the original office records
3f the council. My conjectures are that when Sr. John Ran-
dolph was about to begin the History of Virginia which he meant
to write, he borrowed these volumes from the council office, to
collect from them materials for his work. He died before he
had made any progress in that work, and they remained in his
library, probably unobserved, during the whole life of the late
Peyton Randolph, his son ; from his executors I purchased his
library in a lump, and these volumes were sent to me as a part
of it. I found the leaves so rotten as often to crumble into dust
on being handled ; I bound them, therefore, together, that they
might not be unnecessarily opened, and have thus preserved them
forty-seven years. If my conjectures are right, they must have
been out of the public office about eighty years. I shall deposit
them also with the others in the same library of the university,
where they will be safer from injury than in a public office. I
have promised, however, to trust them to Mr. Hennig, if he will
' copy and publish them when he shall h?ve finished his collec-
tion of the laws. For this he is peculiarly qualified, as well by
his diligence as by his familiarity with our ancient manuscript
CORRESPONDENCE. 313
characters, a familiarity very necessary for decyphering these
volumes.
I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to
use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving doc-
uments relating to the history of our country. That I have not
been remiss in this while I had youth, health, and opportunity,
is proved otherwise, as well as by the materials I furnished to-
wards Mr. Hening's invaluable collection of the laws of our coun-
try ; but there is a time, and that time is come with me, when
these duties are no more, when age and the wane of mind and
memory, and the feebleness of the powers of life pass them over
as a legacy to younger hands. I write now slowly, laboriously,
painfully. I am obliged, therefore, to decline all correspondence
which some moral duty does not urgently call on me to answer.
•I always trust that those who write them will read their answer
in my age and silence, and see in these a manifestation that I am
done with' writing letters. I am sorry, therefore, that I am not
able to give any aid to the work you contemplate, other than my
best wishes for its success, and to these I add the assurance of
of my great respect.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
MoNTicELLo, October 12, 1823.
Dear Sir, — I do not write with the ease which your letter of
September the 18th supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make
writing slow and laborious. But while writing to you, I lose
the sense of these things in the recollection of ancient times,
when youth and health made happiness out of everything. I
forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think
of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid
of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us
of all at once. Against this tedium vitm, however, I am fortu-
nately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better
managed some thirty or forty years ago j but whose easy amble
314 lEFFEESON'S WORKS.
is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an octogeuary
rider. This is the establishment of a University, on a scale more
comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than
our old William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept
in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness with
with such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall
live to see it go into action.
Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write
this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government,
and now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be
replaced by new affections. I had for sometime observed in the
public papers, dark hints and mysterious inuendoes of a coiTes-
pondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your
bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by
that friend or his representative. And now it is said to be ac-
tually published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts have
been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of
separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive
than that of indignation against the author of this outrage on
private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed at
yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every
honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its im-
pression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With
me, however, no such armor is needed. Tiie circumstances of
the times in which we have happened to live, and the partiality
of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state of ap-
parent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal >
also ; and there might not be wanting those who wished to make
it so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing
up hideous phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to
you under my name, to me under yours, and endeavoring to in-
stil into our minds things concerning each other the most desti-
tute of truth. And if there had been, at any time, a moment
Tvhen we were off olir guard, and in a temper to let the whispers
of these people make us forget what we had known of each
other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men
COEEESPONDENCE. 315
who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who
have seen the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses
the actions and motives of others, have seen also those passions
subsiding with time and reflection, dissipating like mists before
the rising sun, and restoring to us the sight of all things in their
true shape and colors. It would be strange indeed, if, at our
years, we were to go baqk an age to hunt up imaginary or for-
gotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to
the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I am
incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the efibrt
now made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth and wis-
dom, and to sow tares between friends who have been such for
near half a century. Beseeching you then, not to suffer your
mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison its peace,
and praying you to throw it by among the things which have
never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and
constant attachment, friendship and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT.
JIi.xTiCKLLO, October 24, 1823.
Deak Sir, — The question presented by the letters you have
sent me, is the most momentous which has ever been ofi'ered to
my contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a
nation, this sets our compass and points the course which we are
to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And never
could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious.
Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle
ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to sulfer
Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North
and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Eui-ope,
and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of
her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. Wliile the last
is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our endeavor
should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. One
316 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit ; she now
offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
proposition, we detach her from the bands, bring her mighty
weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a coe-
tinent at one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt
and difficulty. Great Britain is the nation which can do us the
most harm of any one, or all on earth ; and with her on our side
we need not fear the whole world. With her then, we should
most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship ; and nothing would
tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more,
side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even
her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war
in which the present proposition might engage us, should that
be its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to in-
troduce and establish the American system, of keeping out of
our land all foreign powers, of never permitting those of Europe
to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. It is to maintain
our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate
this, we can effect a division in the body of the European powers,
and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we
should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that
it will prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain
withdrawn from their scale and shifted into that of our two con-
tinents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war.
For how would they propose to get at either enemy without su-
perior fleets ? Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this
proposition offers, of declaring our protest against the atrocious
violations of the rights of nations, by the interference of any one
in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by Bona-
parte, and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling
itself Holy.
But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to
acquire to our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish
provinces ? I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba
as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our
system of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this
CORRESPONDENOE, SI7
island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries
and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters
flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.
Yet, as I am sensible that this can never be obtained, even with
her own consent, but by war ; and its independence, which is our
second interest, (and especially its independence of England,) can
be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning my first
wish to future chances, and accepting its independence, with
peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association,
at the expense of war and her enmity.
I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed,
that we aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions,
that we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement
between them and the mother country ; but that we will oppose,
with all our means, the forcible interposition of any other power,
as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any other form or pretext, and
most especially, their transfer to any power by conquest, cession,
or acquisition in any other way. I should think it, therefore,
advisable, that the Executive should encourage the British gov-
ernment to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in these
letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as his
authority goes ; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of
which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before
them for consideration at their first meeting, and under the rea-
sonable aspect in which it is seen by himself.
I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have
so long ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I
am not qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any atten-
tion. But the question now proposed involves consequences so
lasting, and efiects so decisive of our future destinies, as to re-
kindle all the interest I have heretofore felt on such occasions,
and to induce me to the hazard of opinions, which will prove
only my wish to contribute still my mite towards anything which
may be useful to our country. And praying you to accept it at
only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant and
affectionate friendship and respect.
318 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO M. COR AT.
MoNTicELLO, October 31, 1823.
Dear Sir, — ^Your favor of July 10th is lately received. I rec*
ollect with pleasure the short opportunity of acquaintance with
you afforded me in Paris, by the kindness of Mr. Paradise, and
the fine editions <.if the classical writers of Greece which have
been announced by you from time to time, have never permitted
me to lose the recollection. Until those of Aristotle's Ethics, and
the Strategicos of Onesander, with which you have now favored
me, and for which I pray you to accept my thanks, I had seen
only your Lives of Plutarch. These I had read, and profited
much by your valuable Scholia, and the aid of a few words from
a modern Greek dictionary would, I believe, have enabled me to
read your patriotic addresses to your countrymen.
You have certainly begun at the right end towards preparing
them for the great object they are now contending for, by im-
proving their minds and qualifying them for self-government.
For this they will owe you lasting honors. Nothing is more
likely to forward this object than a study of the fine models of
science left by their ancestors, to whom we also are all indebted
for the lights which originally led ourselves out of Gothic dark-
ness,
No people sympathize more feelingly than ours with the suffer-
ings of your countrymen, none offer more sincere and ardent
prayers to heaven for their success. And nothing indeed but the
fundamental principle of our government, never to entangle us
with the broils of Europe, could restrain our generous youth from
taking some part in this holy cause. Possessing ourselves the
combined blessing of liberty and order, we wish the same to
other countries, and to none more than yours, which, the first of
civilized nations, presented examples of what man should be.
Not, indeed, that the forms of government adapted to their age
and country are practicable or to be imitated in our day, although
prejudices in their favor would be natural enough to your people.
The circumstances of the world are too much changed for that.
OORRESP JNDENOE. 319
The government of Athens, for example, was that of the people
of one city making laws for the whole country subjected to
them. That of Lacedaemon was the rule of military monks
over the laboring class of the people, reduced to abject slavery.
These are not the doctrines of the present age. The equal rights
of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowl-
edged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Modern
times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered the
only device by which these rights can be secured, to-wit : gov-
ernment by the people, acting not in person, but by representa-
tives chosen by themselves, that is to say, by every man of ripe
years and sane mind, who either contributes by his purse or per-
son to the support of his country. The small and imperfect mix-
ture of representative government in England, impeded as it is by
other branches, aristocratical and hereditary, shows yet the power
of the representative principle towards improving the condition
of man. With us, all the branches of the government are elective
by' the people themselves, except the Judiciary, of whose science
and qualifications they are not competent judges. Yet, even in
that department, we call in a jury of the people to decide all con-
troverted matters of fact, because to that investigation they are
entirely competent, leaving thus as little as possible, merely the
law of the case, to the decision of the judges. And true it is
that the people, especially when moderately instructed, are the
only safe, because the only honest, depositories of the public
rights, and should therefore be introduced into the administra-
tion of them in every function to which they are sufiicient ; they
will err sometimes and accidentally, but never designedly, and
with a systematic and persevering purpose of overthrowing the
free principles of the government. Hereditary bodies, on the
contrary, always existing, always on the watch for their own
aggrandizement, profit of every opportunity of advancing the
privileges of their order, and encroaching on the rights of the
people.
The public papers tell us that your nation has established a
government of some kind without informing us what it is. This
320 JEFFEESOK'S WORKS.
is certainly necessary for the direction of the war, but I presume
it is intended to be temporary only, as a permanent constitution
must be the work of quiet, leisure, much inquiry, and great de-
liberation. The extent of our country was so great, and its
former division into distinct States so established, that ive thought
it better to confederate as to foreign affairs only. Every State
retained its self-government in domestic matters, as better quali-
fied to direct them to the good and satisfaction of their citizens,
than a general government -so distant from its remoter citizens,
and so little familiar with the local peculiarities of the different
parts. But I presume that the extent of country with you, which
may liberate itself from the Turks, is not too large to be asso-
ciated under a single government, and that the particular consti-
tutions of our several States, therefore, and not that of our federal
government, will furnish the basis best adapted to your situation.
There are now twenty-four of these distinct States, none smaller
perhaps than your Morea, several larger than all Greece. Each
of these has a constitution framed by itself and for itself, but mil-
itating in nothing with the powers of the general government in
its appropriate department of war and foreign affairs. These
constitutions being in print and in every hand, I shall only make
brief observations on them, and on those provisions particularly
which have not fulfilled expectations, or which, being varied in
different States, leave a choice to be made of that which is best.
You will find much good in all of them, and no one which
would be approved in all its parts. Such indeed are the differ-
ent circumstances, prejudices, and habits of different nations, that
the constitution of no one would be reconcilable to any other in
every point. A judicious selection of the parts of each suitable
to any other, is all which prudence should attempt ; thi-s«will ap-
pear from a review of some parts of our constitutions.
Our executives are elected by the people for terms of one, two,
three, or four years, under the names of governors or presidents,
and are reeligible a second time, or after a certain term, if ap-
proved by the people. May your Ethnarch be elective also ? or
does your position among the warrnig powers of Europe need an
CORRESPONDENCE. 321
office more permanent, and a leader more stable ? Sureljr yon
will make him single. For if experience has ever taught a truth,
it is that a plurality in the supreme executive will forever split
into discordant factions, distract the nation, annihilate its ener-
gies, and force the nation to rally under a single head, generally
an usurper. We have, I think, fallen on the happiest of all
modes of constituting the executive, that of easing and aiding
our President, by permitting him to choose Secretaries of State,
of finance, of war, and of the navy, with whom he may advise,
either separately or all together, and remedy their divisions by
adopting or controling their opinions at his discretion ; this saves
the nation from the evils of a divided will, and secures to it a
steady march in the systematic course which the president may
have adopted for that of his administration.
Our legislatures are composed of two houses, the senate and
representatives, elected in different modes, and for different pe-
riods, and in some States, with a qualified veto in the executive
chief. But to avoid all temptation to superior pretensions of the
one over the other house, and the possibility of either erecting
itself into a privileged order, might it not be better to choose at
the same time and in the same mode, a body sufficiently numer-
ous to be divided by lot into two separate houses, acting as inde-
pendently as the two houses in England, or in our governments,
and to shuffle their names together and re-distribute them by lot,
once a week for a fortnight ? This would equally give the
benefit of time and separate deliberation, guard against an abso-
lute passage by acclamation, derange cabals, intrigues, and the
count of noses, disarm the ascendency which a popular dem-
agogue might at anytime obtain over either house, and render
impossil)le all disputes between the two houses, which often foim
such obstacles to business.
Our different States have differently modified their several ju-
diciaries as to the tenure of office. Some appoint their judges
for a given term of time ; some continue them during good be-
havior, and that to be determined on by the concurring vote of
two-thirds of each legislative house. In England they are re-
VOL. VII. 21
322 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
movable by a majority only of each house. The last is a prac-
ticable remedy ; the second is not. The combination of the
friends and associates of the accused, the action of personal and
party passions, and the sympathies of the human heart, will for-
ever find means of influencing one-third of either the one or ihe
other house, will thus secure their impunity, and establish them
in fact for life. The first remedy is the best, that of appointing
for a term of years only, with a capacity of re-appointment if
their conduct has been approved. At the establishment of our
constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most
helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience,
however, soon showed in what way they were to become the
most dangerous ; that the insufiiciency of the means provided for
their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office ;
that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only,
pass silent and unheeded by the public at large ; that these de-
cisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little
and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its
change by construction, before any one has perceived that that
invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in con-
suming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted
for life, if secured against all liability to account.
The constitutions of some of our States have made it a duty
■ of their government to provide with due care for the public edu-
cation. This we divide into three grades. 1. Primary schools,
in which are taught reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to
every infant of the State, male and female. 2. Intermediate
schools, in which an education is given proper for artificers and
the middle vocations of life ; in grammar, for example, general
history, logarithms, arithmetic, plain trigonometry, mensuration,
the use of the globes, navigation, the mechanical principles, the
elements of natural philosophy, and, as a preparation for the Uni-
versity, the Greek and Latin languages. 3. An University, in
which these and all other useful sciences shall be taught in their
highest degree ; the expenses of these institutions are defrayed
partly by the public, and partly by the individuals profiting of them
OOERESPOFDENOE. 323
But, whatever be the constitution, great care must be taken to
provide a mode of amendment, Avhen experience or change of
circumstances shall have manifested that any part of it is una-
adapted to the good of the nation. In some of our States it re-
quii'es a new authority from the whole people, acting by their
representatives, chosen for this express purpose, and assembled
in convention. This is found too difficult for remedying the im-
perfections which experience develops from time to time in an
organization of the first impression. A greater facility of amend-
ment is certainly requisite to maintain it in a course of action ac-
commodated to the times and changes through which we are
ever passing. In England the constitution may be altered by a
single act of the legislature, which amounts to the having no
constitution at all. In some of our States, an act passed by two
different legislatures, chosen by the people, at different and suc-
cessive elections, is sufficient to make a change in the constitu-
tion. As this mode may be rendered more or less easy, by re-
quiring the approbation of fewer or more successive legislatures,
according to the degree of difficulty thought sufficient, and yet
safe, it is evidently the best principle which can be adopted for
constitutional amendments.
I have stated that the constitutions of our several States vary
more or less in some particulars. But there are certain principles
in which all agree, and which all cherish as vitally essential to
the protection of the life, liberty, property, and safety of the
citizen.
1. Freedom of religion, restricted only from acts of trespass on
that of others.
2. Freedom of person, s.icuring every one from imprisonment,
or other bodily restraint, but by the laws of the land. This is
effected by the well-known law of habeas corpus.
3. Trial by jury, the best of all safe-guards for the person, the
property, and the fame of every individual.
4. The exclusive right of legislation and taxation in the repre-
sentatives of the people.
5. Freedom of the press, subject only to liability for personal
324 JEyFERSON'S WOEK.S.
injuries. This formidable censor of the public functionaries, by
arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform
peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is
also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and
improving him as a rational, moral, and social being. ,
I have thus, dear Sir, according to your request, given you
some thoughts on the subject of national government. They are
the result of the observations and reflections of an octogenary,
who has passed fifty years of trial and trouble in the various
grades of his country's service. They are yet but outlines which
you will better fill up, and accommodate to the habits and cir-
cumstances of your countrymen. Should they furnish a single
idea which may be useful to them, I shall fancy it a tribute renr
dered to the manes of your Homer, your Demosthenes, and the
splendid constellation of sages and heroes, whose blood is still
flowing in your viens, and whose merits are still resting, as a
heavy debt, on the shoulders of the living, and the future races
of men. While we off"er to heaven the warmest supplications
for the restoration of your countrymen to the freedom and science
of their ancestors, permit me to assure yourself of the cordial es-
teem and high respect which I bear and cherish towards your-
self personally.
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
MoNTicisLLO, November 4, 1823.
Mt Dear Friend, — Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers
have rendered writing so slow and kborious, as to oblige me to
withdraw from nearly all correspondence ; not however, from
yours, while I can make a stroke with a pen. We have gone
through too many trying scenes together, to forget the sympa-
thies and afiections they nourished.
Your- trials have indeed been long and severe. When they
will end, is yet unknown, but where they will end, cannot be
doubted. Alliances, Holy or Hellish, may be formed, and retard
COREESPONDENCE. 325
the epoch of deliverance, may swell the rivers of blood which
are yet to flow, but their own will close the scene, and leave to
mankind the right of self-government. I trust that Spain will
prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines not
to be so, and that her success will be the turning of the tide of
liberty, no more to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the
state of society in Europe can bear a republican government, I
doubted, you know, when with you, and I do now. A heredi-
tary chief, strictly limited, the right of war vested in the legisla-
tive body, a rigid economy of the public contributions, and abso-
lute interdiction of all useless expenses, will go far towards keep-
ing the government honest and unoppressive. But the only se-
curity of all, is in a free press. The force of public opinion can-
not be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The
agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to
keep the waters pure.
We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful
country. For in peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept
in motion. Who is to be the next President, is the topic here
of every conversation. My opinion on that subject is what I ex-
pressed to you in my last letter. The question will be ultimate-
ly reduced to the northernmost and southernmost candidate.
The former will get every federal vote in the Union, and many
republicans ; the latter, all of those denominated of the old school ;
for you are not to believe that these two parties are amalgamat-
ed, that the lion and the lamb are lying down together. The
Hartford Convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent,
prostrated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned it
through shame and mortification ; and now call themselves re-
republicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles are
the same. For in truth, the parties of Whig and Tory, are those
of nature. They exist in all countries, whether called by these
namds, or by tliose of Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and
Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles, and Liberals. The
sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the people, and is a tory by na-
ture. The healthy, strong and bold, cherishes them, and is
82(5 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
formed a whig by nature. On the ecKpse of federalism with us,
although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri ques-
tion, under the false front of lessening the measure of slavery,
but with the real view of producing a geographical division of
parties, which might insure them the next President. The peo-
jile of the north went blindfold into the snare, followed their
leaders for awhile with a zeal truly moral and laudable, until
they became sensible that they were injuring instead of aiding
the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used merely
as tools for electioneering purposes ; and that tric'k of hypocrisy
then fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now suc-
ceeding a distinction, which, like that of republican and federal,
or whig and tory, being equally intermixed through every State,
threatens none of those geographical schisms which go immedi-
ately to a separation. The line of division now, is the preserva-
tion of State rights as reserved in the constitution, or by strained
constructions of that instrument, to merge all into a consolidated
government. The tories are for strengthening the executive and
general Government ; the whigs cherish the representative branch,
and the rights reserved by the States, as the bulwark against
consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy. And
although this division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists, is
well understood, and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing
election, with the reflecting men of both parties.
I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to
send me by Mr. Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me
with the first edition of her American work ; but her " Few days
in Athens," was entirely new, and has been a treat to me of the
highest order. The matter and manner of the dialogue is strict-
ly ancient ; and the principles of the sects are beautifully and
candidly explained and contrasted ; and the scenery and portrait-
ure of the interlocutors are of higher finish than anything in that
line left us by the ancients ; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it is
equal to the best morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this in-
stancej that Herculaneum is likely to furnish better specimens
CORRESPONDENCE. 327
of modern than of ancient genius ; and may we not hope more
from the same pen ?
After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disa-
bled arm, I am again in tolerable health, but extremely debiUtat-
ed, so as to be scarcely able to walk into my garden. The hebe-
tude of age, too, and extinguishment of interest in the things
around me, are weaning me from them, and dispose me with
cheerfulness to resign them to the existing generation, satisfied
that the daily advance of science will enable them to administer
the commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still many
valuable years to give to your country, and with my prayers that
they may be years of health and happiness, and especially that
they may see the establishment of the principles of government
which you have cherished through life, accept the assurance of
my affectionate and constant friendship and respect.
TO MK. PATRICK K. RODGEBS.
MoNTiCELLO, January 29, 1824.
Sir, — I have duly received your favor of the 14th, with a copy
of your mathematical principles of natural philosophy, which I
have looked into with all the attention which the rust of age and
long continued avocations of a very different character permit me
to exercise. I think them entirely worthy of approbation, both
as to matter and method, and for their brevity as a text book ;
and I remark particularly the clearness and precision with which
the propositions are enounced, and, in the demonstrations, the
easy form in which ideas are presented to the mind, so as to be
almost intuitive and self-evident. Of Cavallo's book, which you
say you are enjoined to teach, I have no knowledge, having
never seen it ; but its character is, I think, that of mere mediocri-
ty ; and, from my personal acquaintance with the man, I should
expect no more. He was heavy, capable enough of understand-
ing what he read, and with memory to retain it, but without the'
talent of digestion or improvement. But, indeed, the EnghsK
328 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
generally have been very stationary in latter times, and the
French, on the contrary, so active and successful, particularly in
preparing elementary books, in the mathematical and natural
sciences, that those who wish for instruction, without caring from
what nation they get it, resort universally to the latter language.
Besides the earlier and invaluable works of Euler and Bezont,
we have latterly that of Lacroix in mathematics, of Legendre in
geometry, Lavoisier in chemistry, the elementary works of Haiiy
in physics, Biot in experimental physics and physical astronomy,
Dumeril in natural history, to say nothing of many detached essays
of Monge and others, and the transcendent labors of Laplace, and
I am informed, by a highly instructed person recently from Cam-
bridge, that the mathmeticians of that institution, sensible of be-
ing in the rear of those of the continent, and ascribing the cause
much to their too long-continued preference of the geometrical
over the analyitcal methods, which the French have so much cul-
tivated and improved, have now adopted the latter; and that
they have also given up the fluxionary, for the differential calcu-
lus. To confine a school, therefore, to the obsolete work of
Cavallo, is to shut out all advances in the physical sciences,
which have been so great in latter times. I am glad, however,
to learn from your work, and to expect from those it promised in
succession, which will doubtless be of equal grade, that so good
a course of instruction is pursued in William and Mary. It is
very long since I have had any infermation of the state of edu-
cation in that seminary, to which, as my alma mater, my at-
tachment has been ever sincere, although not exclusive. When
that college was located at the middle plantation in 1693, Charles
city was a frontier county, and there were no inhabitants above
the falls of the rivers, sixty miles only higher up. It was, there-
fore, a position, nearly central to the population, as it then was;
but when the frontier became extended to the Sandy river, three
hundred miles west of Williamsburg, the public convenience
called, first for a removal of the seat of government, and latterly,
not for a removal of the college, but, for the establishment of a
new one, in a more central and healthy situation ; not disturbing
OOREESPONDENOE, 329
tlie old one in its possessions or functions, but leaving them un-
impaired for the benefit of those to whom it is convenient. And
indeed, I do not foresee that the number of its students is likely
to be much affected ; because I presume that, at present, its dis-
tance and autumnal climate prevent its receiving many students
from above the tide-waters, and especially from above the moun-
tains. This is, therefore, one of the cases where the lawyers say
there is damnum absque injuria ; and they instance, as in point,
the settlement of a new schoolmaster in the neighborhood of an
old one. At any rate it is one of those cases wherein the public
interest rightfully prevails, and the justice of which will be yield-
ed to by none, I am sure, with more dutiful and candid acquies-
cence than the enlightened friends of our ancient and venerable
institution. The only rivalship, I hope, between the old and the
new, will be in doing the most good possible in their respective
sections of country.
As the diagrams of your book have not been engraved, I re-
turn you the MS. of them, which must be of value to yourself.
They furnish favorable specimens of the graphical talent of your
former pupil. Permit me to add, that I shall always be ready
and happy to receive with particular wecome the visit of which
you flatter me with the hope, and to avail myself of the occasion
of assuring you personally of my great respect and esteem.
TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
MoNTicKLio, February 3, 1824.
Deak Sik, — I am favored with your two letters of January the
26th and 29th, and I am glad that yourself and the friends of
the University are so well satisfied, that the provisos amendatory
of the University Act are mere nullities. I had not been able to
put out of my head the Algebraical equation, which was among
the first of my college lessons, that a — a=0. Yet I cheerfully
arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor do I
now suppose it possible, that both houses of the legislature should
330 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue,
to set all the Professors and students of the University adrift ;
and if foreigners will have the same confidence which we have
in our legislature, no harm will have been done by the provisos.
You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of
the legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the
rising of the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the meas-
ures which this act was expected to call for. You will of course
remind the Governor that a re-appointment of Visitors is to be
made on the day following Sunday, the 29th of this month ; and
as he is to appoint the day of their first meeting, it would be well
to recommend to him that which our brethren there shall fix on.
It may be designated by the Governor as the third, fourth, &c.,
day after the rising of the legislature, which will give it certain-
ty enough.
You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books
and apparatus ? Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or
fifty thousand dollars Would enable us to purchase the most es-
sential books of texts and reference for the schools, and such an
apparatus for mathematics, astronomy and chemistry, as may en-
able us to set out with tolerable competence, if we can, through
the banks and otherwise, anticipate the whole sum at once.
I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves
to any one for the law appointment. Your caution is perfectly
just. I hope, and am certain, that this will be the standing law
of discretion and duty with every member of our board, in this
and all cases. You know we have all, from the beginning, con-
sidered the high qualifications of our professors, as the only
means by which we could give to our institution splendor and
pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only question,
therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate, will
be, is he the most highly qualified ? The college of Philadel-
phia has lost its character of primacy by indulging motives of
favoritism and nepotism, and by conferring the appointments as
if the professorships were entrusted to them as provisions for
their friends. And even that of Edinburgh, you know, is also
CORRESPONDENCE. 331
much lowered from the same cause. We are next to obseive,
that a man is not qualified for a professor, knowing nothing but
merely his own profession. He should be otherwise well educat-
ed as to the sciences generally ; able to converse understandingly
with the scientific men with whom he is associated, and to as-
sist in the councils of the faculty on any subject of science on
which they may have occasion to deliberate. Without this, he
will incur their contempt, and bring disreputation on the institu-
tion. With respect to the professorship you mention, I scarcely
know any of our judges personally ; but I will name, for exam-
ple, the late Judge Roane, who, I believe, was generally admit-
ted to be among the ablest of them. His knowledge was con-
fined to the common law chiefly, which does not constitute one-
half of the qualification of a really learned lawyer, much less that
of a professor of law for an University. And as to any other
branches of science, he mast have stood mute in the presence of
his literary associates, or of any learned strangers or others visit-
ing the University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we
propose to take ?
In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with
powers of appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeak-
able comfort, that 1 never did appoint a relation to office, and
that merely because I never saw the case in which some one did
not ofi'er, or occur, better qualified ; and I have the most unlimited
confidence, that in the appointment of Professors to our nursling
institution, every individual of my associates will look with a single
eye to the sublimation of its character, and adopt, as our sacred
motto, '' detur dig?iiori." In this way it will honor us, nd bless
our country.
I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run mto
generalities beyond the scope of the particular intimation in yom'
letter. I will let them go, however, as a general confession of
faith, not belonging merely to the present case.
Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be as-
sured yourself of my constant friendship and respect.
332 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO JARED SPARKS.
MoNTiCELLO, February 4, 1 824.
Dear Sir, — I duly received your favor of the 13th, and with
it, the last number of the North American Review. This has
anticipated the one I should receive in course, but have not yet
received, under my subscription to the new series. The article
on the African colonization of the people of color, to which you
invite my attention, I have read with great consideration. It is,
indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more,
too, than I had before known, of the degree of success and prom-
ise of that colony.
In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two
rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. First. The es-
tablishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may intro-
duce among the aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the
blessings of civilization and science. By doing this, we may
make to them some retribution for the long course of injuries we
have been committing on their population. And considering
that these blessings will descend to the " nati natorum, et qui
nascentur ab illis" we shall in the long run have rendered them
perhaps more good than evil. To fulfil this object, the colony
of Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our
prospect of success. Under this view, the colonization society
is to be considered as a missionary society, having in view, how-
ever, objects more humane, more justifiable, and less aggressive
on the peace of other nations, than the others of that appellation.
The econd object, and the most interesting to us, as coming
home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and
safety, is to provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send
the whole of that population from among us, and establish them
under our patronage and protection, as a separate, free and inde-
pendent people, in some country and climate friendly to human
life and happiness. That any place on the coast of Africa should
answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed entirely impossible.
And without repeating the other arguments which have been urged
CORRESPONDENCE. 383
by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit no contro-
versy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate,
yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially.
There are in the United States a million and a half of people of
color in slavery. To send off the whole of these at once, no-
body conceives to be practicable for us, or expedient for them.
Let us take twenty-five years for its accomplishment, within
which time they will be doubled. Their estimated value as prop-
erty, in the first place, (for actual property has been lawfully
vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from the pos-
sessors ?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and
old, would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must
be paid or lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their
transportation by land and sea to Mesurado, a year's provision of
food and clothing, implements of husbandry and of their trades,
which will amount to three hundred millions more, making
thirty-six millions of dollars a year for twenty-five years, with
insurance of peace all that time, and it is impossible to look at
the question a second time. I am aware that at the end of about
sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will commence,
from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during the
remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still
impossible to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say
this to induce an inference that the getting rid of them is forever
impossible. For that is neither my opinion nor my hope. But
only that it cannot be done in this way. There is, I think, a
way in which it can be done ; that is, by emancipating the after-
born, leaving them, on due compensation, with their mothers,
until their services are worth theii' maintenance, and then put-
img them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for de-
portation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject
five and forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to con-
ceive any other practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes
on Virginia, under the fourteenth query. The estimated value
of the new-born infant is so low, (say twelve dollars and fifty
cents,) that it would probably be yielded by the owner gratis.
334 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
and would thus reduce the six hiindred millions of dollars, the
first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions and a half ; leaving
only the expenses of nourishment while with the mother, and
of transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to
be furnished ? Why not from that of the lands which have
been ceded by the very States now needing this relief? And
ceded on no consideration, for the most part, but that of the gen-
eral good of the whole. These cessions already constitute one
fourth of the States of the Union. It may be said that these
lands have been sold ; are now the property of the citizens com-
posing those States ; and the money long ago received and ex-
pended. But an equivalent of lands in the territories since ac-
quired, may be appropriated to that object, or so much, at least,
as may be sufficient ; and the object, although more important
to the slave States, is highly so to the others also, if they were
serious in their arguments on the Missouri question. The slave
States, too, if more interested, would also contribute more by
their gratuitous liberation, thus taking on themselves alone the
first and heaviest item of expense.
In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular
place of asylum was specified ; because it was thought possible,
that in the revolutionary state of America, then commenced,
events might open to us some one within practicable distance.
This has now happened. St. Domingo has become independent,
and with a population of that color only ; and if the public papers
are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay their passage, to re-
ceive them as free citizens, and to provide them employment.
This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense but of
nurture with the mother a few years, and would call, of course,
for a very moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose
the whole annual increase to be of sixty thousand effective births,
fifty vessels, of four hundred tons burthen each, constantly em-
ployed in that short run, would carry off' the increase of every
year, and the old stock would die oiF in the ordinary course of
nature, lessening from the commencement until its final disap-
pearance. In this way no violation of private right is proposed,
CORRESPONDENCE. 335
Voluntary surrenders -would probably come in as fast as the means
to be provided for their care would be competent to it. Looking
at my own State only, and I presume not to speak for the others,
I verily believe that this surrender of property would not amount
to more, annually, than half our present direct taxes, to be con-
tinued fully about twenty or twenty-five years, and then gradually
diminishing for as many more until their final extinction ; and
even this half tax would not be paid in cash, but by the delivery
of an object which they have never yet known or counted as part
of their property ; and those not possessing the object will be called
on for nothing. I do not go into all the details of the burthens
and benefits of this operation. And who could estimate its blessed
effects ? I leave this to those who will live to see their accom-
plishment, and to enjoy a beatitude forbidden to my age. But I
leave it with this admonition, to rise and be doing. A million
and a half are within their control ; but six millions, (which a
majority of those now living will see them attain,) and one mill-
ion of these fighting men, will say, " we will not go."
I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scru-
ples. But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may go
far, and an amendment of the constitution, the whole length ne-
cessary. The separation of infants from their mothers, too, would
produce some scruples of humanity. But this would be straining
at a gnat, and swallowing a camel.
I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject
of the duty on imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept
up against it, until those in power shall become sensible of this
stain on our legislation, and shall wipe it from their code, and from
the remembrance of man, if possible.
I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
336 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO ROBERT J. GARNETT.
MoNTicELLO, February H, 1824.
Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for the copy of Colonel Tay-
lor's New Views of the Constitution, and shall read them with
the satisfaction and edification which I have ever derived from
whatever he has written. But I fear it is the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. Those who formerly usurped the name of
federalists, which, in fact, they never were, have now openly
abandoned it, and are as openly marching by the road of con-
struction, in a direct line to that consolidation which was always
their real object. They, almost to a man, are in possession of
one branch of the government, and appear to be very strong in
yours. The three great questions of amendment now before
you, will give the measure of their strength. I mean, 1st, the
limitation of the term of the presidential service ; 2d, the placing
the choice of president effectually in the hands of the people ;
3d, the giving to Congress the power of internal improvement,
on condition that each State's federal proportion of the monies
so expended, shall be employed within the State. The friends
of consolidation would rather take these powers by construction
than accept them by direct investiture from the States. Yet, as
to internal improvement particularly, there is probably not a
State in the Union which would not grant the power on the con-
dition proposed, or which would grant it without that.
The best general key for the solution of questions of power
between our governments, is the fact that " every foreign and
federal power is given to the federal government, and to the
States every poweB purely domestic." I recollect but one m-
stance of control vested in the federal, over the State authorities
ui a matter purely domestic, which is that of metallic tenders.
The federal is, in truth, our foreign government, which depart-
ment alone is taken from the sovereignty of the separate States.
The real friends of the constitution in its federal form, if they
wish it to be immortal, should be attentive, by amendments, to
make it keep pace with the advance of the age in science and
COERESPONDENCE, 337
experience. Instead of this, the European governments have re-
sisted reformation, until the people, seeing no other resource, un-
dertake it themselves by force, their only weapon, and work it
out through blood, desolation and long-continued anarchy. Here
it will be by large fragments breaking off, and refusing re-union
but on condition of amendment, or perhaps permanently. If I
can see these three great amendments prevail, I shall consider it
as a renewed extension of the term of our lease, shall live in
more confidence, and die in more hope. And I do trust that the
republican mass, which Colonel Taylor justly says is the real
federal one, is still strong enough to carry these truly federo-re-
publican amendments. With my prayers for the issue, accept
my friendly and respectful salutations.
TO MB. ISAAC ENGELBBECHT.
MoNTicELLo, February 25, 1824.
SiK, — The kindness of the motive which led to the request of
your letter of the 14th instant, and which would give some value
to an article from me, renders compliance a duty of gratitude ;
knowing nothing more moral, more sublime, more worthy of
your preservation than David's description of the good man, in
his 15th Psalm, I will here transcribe it from Brady & Tate's
version :
Lord, who's the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair,
Not stranger-like, to visit them, but to inhabit there ?
"Tis he whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves.
Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart disproves.
"Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor's fame to wound,
Nor hearken to a false report by malice whispered round.
Who, vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
Who, to his plighted vowa and trust, has ever firmly stood,
And though he promise to his loss he makes his promise good.
Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ,
Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
The man who by this steady course has happiness ensured,
When earth's foundation shakes, shall stand by providence secured.
VOi. VII. 22
338 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
Accept this as a testimony of my respect for your request, an
acknowledgment of a due sense of the favor of your opinion,
and an assurance of my good will and best wishes.
I
TO MR. WOODWABD.
MoNTiOKLLO, March 24, 1824.
I have to thank you, dear Sir, for the copy I have received
of your System of Universal Science, for which, I presume, I
am indebted to yourself. It will be a monument of the learning
of the author and of the analyzing powers of his mind. Whether
it may be adopted in general use is yet to be seen. These an-
alytical views indeed must always be ramified according to their
object. Yours is on the great scale of a methodical encyclope-
dia of all human sciences, taking for the basis of their distribu-
tion, matter, mind, and the union of both. Lord Bacon founded
his first great division on the faculties of the mind which have
"cognizance of these sciences. It does not seem to have been ob-
served by any one that the origination of this division was not
with him. It had been proposed by Charron more than twenty
years before, in his book de la Sagesse, B. 1, c. 14, and an im-
perfect ascription of the sciences to these respective faculties was
there attempted. This excellent moral work was published in
1600. Lord Bacon is said not to have entered on his great work
until his retirement from public office in 1621. Where sciences
are to be arranged in accommodation to the schools of an univer-
sity, they will be grouped to coincide with the kindred qualifica-
tions of Professors in ordinary. For a library, which was my
object, their divisions and subdivisions will be made such as to
throw convenient masses of books under each separate head.
Thus, m the library of a physician, the books of that science, of
which he has many, will be subdivivided under many heads ;
and those of law, of which he has few, will be placed under a
single one. The lawyer, again, will distribute his law books
under many subdivisions, his medical under a single one. Your
COERESPONDENOE. 339
idea of making the subject matter of the sciences the basis of
their distribution, is certainly more reasonable than that of the
faculties to which they are addressed. The materialists will per-
haps criticize a basis, one-half of which they will say is a non-
existence ; adhering to the axiom of Aristotle, " nihil est in in-
tellectu quod prius non fuerit in sensu" and affirming that we
can have no evidence of any existence which impresses no sense.
Of this opinion were most of the ancient philosophers, and several
of the early and orthodox fathers of the christian church. Indeed,
Jesus himself, the founder of our religion, was unquestionably a
materialist as to man. In all his doctrines of the resurrection, he
teaches expressly that the body is to rise in substance. In the
Apostles' Creed, we all declare that we believe in the "resurrec-
tion of the body." Jesus said that God is spirit [tif u(i»] with-
out defining it. Tertullian supplies the definition, " quis nega-
hit Deum esse corpus, etsi Deus Spiritus 7 spiritus etiam corporis
sui getieris in sua effigie." And Origen, " itnuintjon accipi, docet,
pro eo quod non est simile huic nostro crassiori et visibli corpori,
sed quod est naturaliter subtile et velut aura tenue." The mod-
ern philosophers mostly consider thought as a function of our ma-
terial organization ; and Locke particularly among them, charges
with blasphemy those who deny that Omnipotence could give
the faculty of thinking to certain combinations of matter.
Were I to re-compose my tabular view of the sciences, I
should certainly transpose a particular branch. The naturalists,
you know, distribute the history of nature into three kingdoms
or departments : zoology, botany, mineralogy. Ideology or mind,
however, occupies so much space in the field of science, that we
might perhaps erect it into a fourth kingdom or department.
But, inasmuch as it makes a part of the animal construction only,
it would be more proper to subdivide zoology into physical and
moral. The latter including ideology, ethics, and mental science
generally, in my catalogue, considering ethics, as well as relig-
ion, as supplements to law in the government of man, I had
placed them in that sequence. But certainly the faculty of
thought belongs to animal history, is an important portion of it
340 JEFFERSON'S WOEKS.
and should there find its place. But these are speculations in
which I do not now permit myself to labor. My mind unwill-
ingly engages in severe investigations. Its energies, indeed, are
no onger equal to them. Being to thank you for your book, its
subject has run away with me into a labyrinth of ideas no longer
familiar, and writing also has become a slow and irksome opera-
tion with me. I have been obliged to avail myself of the pen
of a granddaughter for this communication. I will here, there-
fore, close my task of thinking, hers of writing, and yours of read-
ing, with assurances of my constant and high respect and esteem.
TO MR. EDWAHD EVEKETT.
MoNTicELLO, M.arch 21, 1824
Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for your Greek reader, which,
tor the use of schools, is evidently preferable to the Collectanea
Grseca. These have not arranged their selections so well in gra-
dation from the easier to the more difficult styles.
On the subject of the Greek ablative, I dare say that your his-
torical explanation is the true one. In the early stages of lan-
guages, the distinctions of cases may well be supposed so few as
to be readily effected by changes of termination. The Greeks,
in this way, seem to have formed five, the Latins six, and to
have supplied their deficiences as they occurred in the progress
of development, by prepositive words. In later times, the Ital-
ians, Spaniards, and French, have depended on prepositions alto-
gether, without any inflection of the primitive word to denote
the change of case. What is singular as to the English is, that
in its early form of Anglo-Saxon, having distinguished several
cases by changes of termination, at later periods it has dropped
these, retains but that of the genitive, and supplies all the others
by prepositions. These subjects, with me, are neither favorites
nor familiar ; and your letter has occasioned me to look more
into the particular one in question than I had ever done before.
Turning, for satisfaction, to the work of Tracy, the most pro-
CORRESPONDENCE. 34I
found of our ideological writers, and to the volume particularly
which treats of grammar, I find what I suppose to be the correct
doctrine of the case. Omitting unnecessary words to abridge
writing, I copy what he says : " II y a des langues qui par cer-
tains changemens de desinence, appelles cas, indiquent quelques-
uns des rapports des noms avec d'autres noms ; mais beaucoup
de langues n'ont point de cas ; et celles qui en ont, n'en ont qu'un
petit nombre, tandis que les divers rapports qu'une idee pent avoir
avec une autre sont extremement multiplies : ainsi, les cas ne
peuvent exprimer qu'en general, les principaux de ces rapports.
Aussi dans toutes les langues, meme dans celles qui ont des cas,
on a senti le besoin de mots distincts, separes des autres, et ex-
pressement destines a cet usage ; ils ce qu'on appelle des preposi-
tions." 2 Tracy Siemens d'Ideologie, c. 3, '§> 5, p. 114, and he
names the Basque "and Peruvian languages, whose nouns have
such various changes of termination as to express all the relations
which other languages express by prepositions, and therefore
having no prepositions. On this ground, I suppose, then, we
may rest the question of the Greek ablative. It leaves with me
a single difficulty only, to-wit : the instances where they have
given the ablative signification to the dative termination, some
of which I quoted in my former letter to you.
I have just received a letter from Coray, at Paris, of the 28th
December, in which he confirms the late naval success of the
Greeks, but expresses a melancholy fear for his nation, " qui a
montre jusqu'a ce moment des prodiges de valeur, mais qui,
delivree d'un joug de Cannibass, ne pent encore posseder ni les
legons d'instruction, ni celles de I'experience." I confess I have
the same fears for our South American brethren ; the qualifica-
tions for self-government in society are not innate. They are
the result of habit and long training, and for these they wi.l re-
quire time and probably much suffering.
I salute you with assurances of great esteem and respect.
34:2 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO EDWABD LIVINGSTON.
MoNTiCELLO, April 4, 1 824.
Dear Sik, — It was with great pleasure I learned that the good
people of New Orleans had restored you again to the councils of
our country. I did not doubt the aid it would bring to the re-
mains of our old school in Congress, in which your early labors
had been so useful. You will find, I suppose, on revisiting our
maritime States, the names of things more changed than the
things themselves ; that though our old opponents have given up
their appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned
their views, and that they are as strong nearly as they ever were.
These cares, however, are no longer mine. I resign myself cheer-
fully to the managers of the ship, and the more contentedly, as I
am near the end of my voyage. I have learned to be less confi-
dent in the conclusions of human reason, and give more credit to
the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical idea of the char-
acter of the constitution of our government, which I have adopted
as a key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the whole field
of government is divided into two departments, domestic and
foreign, (the States in their mutual relations being of the latter;)
that the former department is reserved exclusively to the respec-
tive States within their own limits, and the latter assigned to a
separate set of functionaries, constituting what may be called the
foreign branch, which, instead of a federal basis, is established as
a distinct government quoad hoc, acting as the domestic branch
does on the citizens directly and coercively ; that these depart-
partments have distinct directories, co-ordinate, and equally in-
dependent and supreme, each within its own sphere of action.
Whenever a doubt arises to which of these branches a power be-
longs, I try it by this test. I recollect no case where a question
simply between citizens of the same State, has been transferred
to the foreign department, except that of inhibiting tenders but
of metallic money, and ex post facto legislation. The causes of
these singularities are well remembered.
I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of
OOREESPONDENOE. 343
national improvement, which I have read with great pleasure,
and recognize in it those powers of reasoning and persuasion of
which I had formerly seen from you so many proofs. Yet, in
candor, I must say it has not removed, in my mind, all the diffi-
culties of the question. And I should really be alarmed at a dif-
ference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own, were it
not that I have, as companions in sentiments, the Madisons, the
Monroes, the Randolphs, the Macons, all good men ^nd true, of
primitive principles. In one sentiment of the speech I particu-
larly concur. "If we have a doubt relative to any power, we
ought not to exercise it." When we consider the extensive and
deep-seated opposition to this assumption, the conviction enter-
tained by so many, that this deduction of powers by elaborate
construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the diffi-
culties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise ;
that changes of majorities will be changing the system back-
wards and forwards, so that no undertaking mider it will be safe ;
that there is not a State in the Union which would not give the
power willingly, by way of amendment, with some little guard,
perhaps, against abuse ; I cannot but think it would be the wisest
course to ask an express grant of the power. A government held
together by the bands of reason only, requires much compromise
of opinion ; that things even salutary should not be crammed
down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when they
may be put into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a
great deal of indulgence is necessary to strengthen habits of har-
mony and fraternity. In such a case, it seems to me it would be
safer and wiser to ask an express grant of the power. This
would render its exercise smooth and acceptable to all, and in-
sure to it all the facilities which the States could contribute, to
prevent that kind of abuse which all will fear, because all know
it is so much practised in public bodies, I mean the bartering of
votes. It would reconcile every one, if limited by the proviso,
that the federal proportion of each State should be expended
within the State. With this single security against partiality
and corrupt bargaining, I suppose there is not a State, perhaps
844 JEFFEESON'S WORKS.
not a man in the Union, who would not consent to atld this tc
the powers of the general government. But age has 'v^eaned me
from questions of this kind. My delight is now in the passive
occupation of reading ; and it is with great reluctance I permit
my mind ever to encounter subjects of difficult investigation.
You have many years yet to come of vigorous activity, and I
confidently trust they will be employed in cherishing every
measure which may foster our brotherly union, and perpetuate a
constitution of government destined to be the primitive and pre-
cious model of what is to change the condition of man over the
globe. With this confidence, equally strong in your powers and
purposes, I pray you to accept the assurance of my cordial es-
teem and respect.
TO JOHN HAMBDEN PLEASANTS.
MoNTicELLO, April 19, 1824.
Deah Sir, — I received in due time your favor of the 12th, re-
questing my opinion on the proposition to call a convention for
amending the constitution of the State. That this should not be
perfect cannot be a subject of wonder, when it is considered that
ours was not only the first of the American States, but the first
nation in the world, at least within the records of history, which
peaceably by its wise men, formed on free deliberation, a consti-
tution of government for itself, and deposited it in writing, among
their archives, always ready and open to the appeal of every citi-
zen. The other States, who successively formed constitutions
for themselves also, had the benefit of our outline, and have made
on it, doubtless, successive improvements. One in the very out-
set, and which has been adopted in every subsequent constitu-
tion, was to lay its foundation in the authority of the nation. To
our convention no special authority had been delegated by the
people to form a permanent constitution, over which their suc-
cessors in legislation should have no powers of alteration. They
had been elected for the ordinary purposes of legislation only,
OOEEESPONDENCE. 345
and at a time when the estabhshment of a new government had
not been proposed or contemplated. Although, therefore, they
gave to this act the title of a constitution, yet it could be no more
than an act of legislation subject, as their other acts were, to al-
teration by their successors. It has been said, indeed, that the
acquiescence of the people supplied the want of original power.
But it is a dangerous lesson to say to them "whenever your
functionaries exercise unlawful authority over you, if you do
not go into actual resistance, it will be deemed acquiescence and
confirmation." How long had we acquiesced under usurpations
of the British parliament ? Had that confirmed them in right,
and made our revolution a wrong ? Besides, no authority has
yet decided whether this resistance must be instantaneous ; Avhen
the right to resist ceases, or whether it has yet ceased ? Of the
twenty-four States now organized, twenty-three have disapproved
our doctrine and example, and have deemed the authority of their
people a necessary foundation for a constitution.
Another defect which has been corrected by most of the States
iS, that the basis of our constitution is in opposition to the princi-
ple of equal political rights, refusing to all but freeholders any
participation in the natural right of self-government. It is be-
lieved, for example, that a very great majority of the militia, on
whom the burthen of military duty was imposed in the late war,
were men unrepresented in the legislation which imposed this
burthen on them. However nature may by mental or physical
disqualifications have marked infants and the weaker sex for the
protection, rather than the direction of government, yet among
the men who either pay or fight for their country, no line of
right can be drawn. The exclusion of a majority of our free-
men from the right of representation is merely arbitrary, and an
usurpation of the minority over the majority ; for it is believed
that the non-freeholders compose the majority of our free and
adult male citizens.
And even among our citizens who participate in the represent-
ative privilege, the equality of political rights is entirely prostrat-
ed by our constitution. Upon which principle of right or rea-
846 JEFFEESON'S WOEKS.
son can any one justify the giving to every citizen of Warwick
as much weight in the government as to twenty-two equal citi-
zens in Loudon, and similar inequalities among the other coun-
ties ? If these fundamental principles are of no importance in
actual government, then no principles are important, and it is as
well to rely on the dispositions of an administration, good or
evil, as on the provisions of a constitution.
I shall not enter into the details of smaller defects, although
others there doubtless are, the reformation of some of which
might very much lessen the expenses of government, improve its
organization, and add to the wisdom and purity of its adminis-
tration in all its parts ; but these things I leave to others, not per-
mitting myself to take sides in the political questions of the day.
I willingly acquiesce in the institutions of my country, perfect or
imperfect ; and think it a duty to leave their modifications to
those who are to live under them, and are to participate of the
good or evU they may produce. The present generation has the
same right of self-government which the past one has exercised
for itself. And those in the full vigor of body and mind are
more able to judge for themselves than those who are sinking
under the wane of both. If the sense of our citizens on the
question of a convention can be fairly and fully taken, its result
will, I am sure, be wise and salutary ; and far from arrogating
the office of advice, no one will more passively acquiesce in it
than myself. Retiring, therefore, to the tranquillity called for by
increasing years and debility, I wish not to be understood as in-
termeddling in this question ; and to my prayers for the general
good, I have only to add assurances to yourself of my great esteem.
TO MK. DAVID HARDING, PKESIDENT OF THE JEFFEIISON DEBATING
SOCIETY OF HINGHAM.
MoNTiCELLO, April 20, 1824.
Sir, — I have duly received your favor of the 6th instant, in-
forming me of the institution of a debating society in Hingham,
composed of adherents to the republican principles of the revolu-
OORRESPONDEKOE. 347
tion ; and I am justly sensible of the honor done my name by
associating it with the title of the society. The object of the
society is laudable, and in a republican nation, whose citizens
are to be led by reason and persuasion, and not by force, the art
of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity
has left us the finest models for imitation ; and he who studies
and imitates them most nearly, will nearest approach the perfec-
tion of the art. Among these I should consider the speeches of
Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic,
taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to
spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Am-
plification is the vice of modern oratory. It is an insult to an
assembly of reasonable men, disgusting and revolting instead of
persuading. Speeches measured by the hour, die with the hour.
I will not, however, further indulge the disposition of the age to
sermonize, and especially to those surrounded by so much better
advice. With my apologies, therefore, for hazarding even these
observations, and my prayers for the success of your institution,
be pleased to accept for the society and yourself the assurances
of my high consideration.
TO KICHARD HUSH.
MoNTiCELLO, April 26, 1824.
Dear Sik, — I have heretofore informed you that our legisla-
ture had midertaken the establishment of an University in Vir-
ginia ; that it was placed in my neighborhood, and under the di-
rection of a board of seven risitors, of whom I am one, Mr.
Madison another, and others equally worthy of confidence. We
have been four or five years engaged in erecting our buildings,
all of which are now ready to receive their tenants, one excepted,
which the present season will put into a state for use. The last
session of our legislature had by new donations liberated the
revenue of fifteen M. D. a year, with which they had before en-
dowed the institution, and we propose to open it the beginning
348 JEFFEESON'S WOEKS.
of the next year. We require the intervening time for seeking
out and engaging Professors. As to these we have determined
to receive no one who is not of the first order of science in hia
line ; and as such in every branch cannot be obtained with us,
we propose to seek some of them at least in the countries ahead
of us in science, and preferably in Great Britain, the land of our
own language, habits, and manners. But how to find out those
who are of the first grade of science, of sober correct habits and
morals, harmonizing tempers, talents for communication, is the
difficulty. Our first step is to send a special agent to the Uni-
versities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, to make the se-
lection for us ; and the person appointed for this office is the gen-
tleman who will hand you this letter, — Mr. Francis Walker
Gilmer, — the best-educated subject we have raised since the
revolution, highly qualified in all the important branches of
science, professing particularly that of the law, which he has
practised some years at our Supreme Court with good success
and flattering prospects. His morals, his amiable temper and
discretion, will do justice to any confidence you may be willing
to place in him, for I commit him to you as his mentor and guide
in the business he goes on. We do not certainly expect to ob-
tain such known characters as were the Cullens, the Robertsons
and Persons of Great Britain, men of the first eminence estab-
lished there in reputation and office, and with emoluments not
to be bettered anywhere. But we know that there is another
race treading on their heels, preparing to take their places, and
as well and sometimes better qualified to fill them. These
while unsettled, surrounded by a crowd of competitors, of equal
claims and perhaps superior credit and interest, may prefer a
comfortable certainty here for an uncertain hope there, and a lin-
gering delay even of that. From this description we expect we
may draw professors equal to those of the highest name. The
difficulty is to distinguish them ; for we are told that so over-
charged are all branches of business in that country, and such the
difficulty of getting the means of living, that it is deemed al-
lowable in ethics for even the most honorable minds to give
CORRESPONDENCE. 349
highly exaggerated recommendations and certificates to enable a
friend or protege to get into a livelihood ; and that the moment
our agent should be known to be on such a mission, he would
be overwhelmed by applications from numerous pretenders, all
of whom, worthy or unworthy, would be supported by such rec-
ommendations and such names as would confound all discrimi-
nation. On this head our trust and hope is in you. Your
knowledge of the state of things, your means of finding out a
character or two at each place, truly trustworthy, and into whose
hands you can commit our agent with entire safety, for informa-
tion, caution and co-operation, induces me to request your patron-
age and aid in our endeavors to obtain such men, and such only
as will fulfil our views. An unlucky selection in the outset
would forever blast our prospects. From our information of the
character of the different Universities, we expect we should go
to Oxford for our classical professor, to Cambridge for those of
Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Natural History, and to
Edinburgh for a professor of Anatomy, and the elements or out-
lines only of Medicine. We have still our eye on Mr. Blaetter-
man for the professorship of modern languages, and Mr. Gilmer
is instructed to engage him, if no very material objection to him
may have arisen unknown to us. We can place in Mr. Gilmer's
hands but a moderate sum at present for merely text books to
begin with, and for indispensable articles of apparatus. Mathe-
matical, Astronomical, Physical, Chemical and Anatomical. We
are in the hope of a sum of $50,000, as soon as we can get a
settlement passed through the public offices. My experience in
dealing with the bookseller Lackington, on your recommendation,
has induced me to recommend him to Mr. Gilmer, and if we can
engage his fidelity, we may put into his hands the larger supply
of books when we are ready to call for it, and particularly what
we shall propose to seek in England.
Although I have troubled you with many particulars, 1' vet
leave abundance for verbal explanation with Mr. Gilmer, who
possesses a full knowledge of everything, and our full confidence
in everything. He takes with him plans of our establishment,
350 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
which we think it may be encouraging to show to the persons
to whom he will make propositions, as well to let them see the
comforts provided for themselves, as to show by the extensive-
ness and expense of the scale, that it is no ephemeral thing to
which they are invited.
With my earnest solicitations that you will give us al' your
aid in an undertaking on which we rest the hopes and happiness
of out country, accept the assurances of my sincere friendship,
attachment and respect.
TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
MoNTicELLO, May 16, 1824.
Dear Sik, — Your favor of the 5th, from Williamsburg, has
been duly received, and presents to us a case of pregnant charac-
ter, admitting important issues, and requiring serious considera-
tion and conduct ; yet I am more inclined to view it with hope
than dismay. It involves two questions. First. Shall the col-
lege of William and Mary be removed ? Second. To what
place ? As to the first, I never doubted the lawful authority of
the legislature over the college, as being a public institution and
endowed from the public property, by public agents for that func-
tion, and for public purposes. Some have doubted this author-
ity without a relinquishment of what they call a vested right by
the body corporate. But as their voluntary relinquishment is a
circumstance of the case, it is relieved from that doubt. I cer-
tainly never wished that my venerable alma mater should be dis-
turbed. I considered it as an actual possession of that ancient
and earliest settlement of our forefathers, and was disposed to see
it yielded as a courtesy, rather than taken as a right. They,
however, are free to renounce a benefit, and we to receive it.
Had we dissolved it on the principle of right, to give a direction
to its funds more useful to the public, the professors, although
their chartered tenure is during pleasure only, might have reason-
ably expected a vale of a year or two's salary, as an intermediate
OOEEESPONDENCE. 351
support, until they could find other employment for their talents.
And notwithstanding that their abandonment is voluntary, this
should still be given them. On this first question I think we
should be absolutely silent and passive, taking no part in it until
the old institution is loosened from its foundation and fairly
placed on its wheels.
2. On the second question, to what place shall it be moved ?
we may take the field boldly. Richmond, it seems, claims it,
but on what ground of advantage to the public ? When the pro-
fessors, their charter and funds shall be translated to Richmond,
will they become more enlightened there than at the old place ?
Will they possess more science ? be more capable of communi-
cating it ? or more competent to raise it from the dead, in a new
sect, than to keep it alive in the ancient one ? Or has Richmond
any peculiarities more favorable for the communication of the
sciences generally than the place which the legislature has pre-
ferred and fixed on for that purpose ? This will not be pretend-
ed. But it seems they possess advantages for a medical school.
Let us scan them. Anatomy may be as competently taught at
the University as at Richmond, the only subjects of discretion
which either place can count on are equally acquirable at both.
And as to medicine, whatever can be learned from lectures or
books, may be taught at the University of Virginia as well as at
Richmond, or even at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or
Boston, with the inestimable additional advantage of acquiring,
at the same time, the kindred sciences by attending the other
schools. But Richmond thinks it can have a hospital which will
furnish subjects for the clinical branch of medicine. The classes
of people which furnish subjects for the hospitals of Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York and Boston, do not exist at Richmond.
The shipping constantly present at those places, furnish many
patients. Is there a ship at Richmond ? The class of white
servants in those cities which is numerous and penniless, and
whose regular resource in sickness is always the hospital, consti-
tutes the great body of their patients ; this class does not exist at
Richmond. The servants there are slaves, whose masters are by
352 JEFFEKSON'S WORKS.
law obliged to take care of them in sickness as in health, and
who could not be admitted into a hospital. These resources,
then, being null, the free inhabitants alone remain for a hospital
at Richmond. And I will ask how many families in Richmond
would send their husbands, wives, or children to a hospital, in
sickness, to be attended by nurses hardened by habit against the
feelings of pity, to lie in public rooms harassed by the cries an(?
sufferings of disease under every form, alarmed by the groans Oj
the dying, exposed as a corpse to be lectured over by a clinical
professor, to be crowded and handled by his students to hear
their case learnedly explained to them, its threatening symptoms
developed, and its probable termination foreboded ? In vindica-
tion of Richmond, I may surely answer that there is not in the
place a family so heartless, as, relinquishing their own tender
cares of a child or parent, to abandon them in sickness to this
last resource of poverty ; for it is poverty alone which peoples
hospitals, and those alone who are on the charities of their parish
would go to their hospital. Have they paupers enough to fill a
hospital ? and sickness enough among these ? One reason alleged
for the removal of the college to Richmond is that Williamsburg
is sickly, is happily little apt for the situation of a hospital. No
Sir ; Richmond is no place to furnish subjects for clinical lec-
tures. I have always had Norfolk in view for this purpose. The
climate and pontine country around Norfolk render it truly sickly
in itself. It is, moreover, the rendezvous not only of the ship-
ping of commerce, but of the vessels of the public navy. The
United States have there a hospital already established, and sup-
plied with subjects from these local circumstances. I had thought
and have mentioned to yourself and oxu- colleagues, that when
our medical school has got well under way, we should propose
to the federal government the association with that establishment,
and at our own expense, of the clinical branch of our medica.
school, so that our students, after qualifying themselves with the
other branches of the science here, might complete their course
of preparation by attending clinical Jectures for six or twelve
months at Norfolk.
COERESPONDENOE. 353
But Richmond has another claim, as being the seat of govern-
ment. The indisposition of Richmond towards our University
has not been unfelt. But would it not be wiser in them to rest
satisfied with the government and their local academy ? Can they
afford, on the question of a change of the seat of government, by
hostilizing the middle counties, to tranfer them from the eastern
to the western interest ? To make it their interest to withdraw
from the former that ground of claim, if used for adversary pur-
poses ? With things as they are, let both parties remain content
and united.
If, then, William and Mary is to be removed, and not to Rich-
mond, can there be two opinions how its funds are to be directed
to the best advantage for the public ? When it was found that
that seminary was entirely ineffectual towards the object of pub-
lic education, and that one on a better plan, and in a better situa-
tion, must be provided, what was so obvious as to employ for
that purpose the funds of the one abandoned, with what more
would be necessary, to raise the new establishment ? And what
so obvious as to do now what might reasonably have been done
then, by consolidating together the institutions and their funds ?
The plan sanctioned by the legislature required for our University
ten professors, but the funds appropriated will maintain but eight,
and some of these are consequently over-burthened with duties ;
the hundred thousand dollars of principal which you say still re-
mains to William and Mary, by its interest of six thousand dol-
lars, would give us the two deficient professors, with an annual
surplus for the purchase of books ; and certainly the legislature
will see no public interest, after the expense incurred on the new
establishment, in setting up a rival in the city of Richmond ;
they cannot think it better to have two institutions crippling one
another, than one of healthy powers, competent to that highest
grade of instruction which neither, with a divided support, could
expect to attain.
Another argument may eventually arise in favor of consolida.
tion. The contingent gift at the late session, of fifty thousand
dollars, for books and apparatus, shows a sense in the legislature
VOL. vir. 23
354 JEFFERSON'S "WORKS.
that those objects are still to be provided. If we fail in obtaining
that sum, they will feel an incumbency to provide it otherwise.
What so ready as the derelict capital of William and Mary, and
the large library they uselessly possess ? Should that college
then be removed, I cannot doubt that the legislature, keeping in
view its original object, will consolidate it with the University.
But it will not be removed. Richmond is doubtless in earnest,
but that the visitors should concur is impossible. The professors
are the prime-movers, and do not mean exactly what they pro-
pose. They hold up this raw-head and bloody-bones in terrorem
to us, to force us to receive them into our institution. Men who
have degraded and foundered the vessel whose helm was en-
trusted to them, want now to force their incompetence on us. I
know none of them personally, but judge of them from the fact
and the opinion I hear from every one acquainted with the case,
that it has been destroyed by their incompetence and mis-man-
agement. Until the death of Bishop Madison, it kept at its usual
stand of about eighty students. It is now dwindled to about
twenty, and the professors acknowledge that on opening our
doors, theirs may be shut. Their funds in that case, would cer-
tainly be acceptable and salutary to us. But not with the incu-
bus of their faculty. When they iind that their feint gives us no
alarm, they will retract, will recall their grammar school, make
their college useful as a sectional school of preparation for the
University, and teach the languages, surveying, navigation, plane
trigonometry, and such other elements of science as will be
useful to many whose views do not call for a university educa-
tion.
I will only add to this long letter an opinion that we had better
say as little as we can on this whole subject ; give them no
alarm ; let them petition for the removal ; let them get the old
structure completely on wheels, and not till then put in our claim
to its reception. I shall communicate your letter, as you re-
quest, to Mr. Madison, and with it this answer. Why can you
not call on us on your way to Warminster, and make this a sub-
ject of conversation ? With my devoted respects to Mrs. Cabell.
CORRESPONDENCE. 355
assure her that she can be nowhere more cordially received than
by the family of Monticello. And the deviation from your di-
rect road is too small to merit consideration. Ever and affection-
ately yonr friend and servant.
TO MAJOB JOHN CARTWHIGHT.
Monticello, June 5, 1824.
Dear and Venerable Sib, — I am much indebted for your kind
letter of February the 29th, and for your valuable volume on the
English constitution. I have read this with pleasure and much
approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution of the
English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon. It is
really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have
failed in their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder
then, that Paine, who thought more than he read, should have
credited the great authorities who have declared, that the will of
parliament is the constitution of England. So Marbois, before
the French revolution, observed to me, that the Almanac Royal
was the constitution of France. Your derivation of it from the
Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on legitimate principles. Hav-
ing driven out the former inhabitants of that part of the island
called England, they became aborigines as to you, and your
lineal ancestors. They doubtless had a constitution ; and al-
though they have not left it in a written formula, to the precise
text of which you may always appeal, yet they have left frag-
ments of their history and laws, from which it may be inferred
with considerable certainty. Whatever their history and laws
show to have been practised with approbation, we may presume
was permitted by their constitution ; whatever was not so prac-
ticed, was not permitted. And although this constitution was
violated and set at naught by Norman force, yet force carmot
change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the nation, by
their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws ,
which shows they were never relinquished by the will of the
356 • JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
nation. In the puUings and haulings for these ancient rights,
between the nation, and its kings of the races of Plantagenets,
Tudors and Stuarts, there was sometimes gain, and sometimes
loss, until the final re-conquest of their rights from the Stuarts.
The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the thread of
pretended inheritance, extinguished all regal usurpations, and the
nation re-entered into all its rights ; and although in their bill of
rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of
the others was no renunciation of the right to assume their eser-
cise also, whenever occasion should occur. The new King re-
ceived no rights or powers, but those expressly granted to
him. It has ever appeared to me, that the difiererice between
the whig and the tory of England is, that the whig deduces his
rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory from the Nor-
man. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says, in so many
words, note AA to chapter 42, that, in the reign of the Stuarts,
" it was the people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the
sovereign who attempted, as is pretended, to usurp upon the peo-
ple." This supposes the Norman usurpations to be rights in his
successors. And again, 0, 159, " the commons established a prin-
ciple, which is noble in itself, and seems specious, but is belied
by all history and experience, that the people are the origin of all
just power." And where else will this degenerate son of science,
this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin oi just powers, if
not in the majority of the society ? Will it be in the minority ?
Or in an individual of that minority ?
Our Revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It
presented us an album on which we were free to write what we
pleased. We had no occasion to search into musty records, to
hunt up royal parchments, or to investigate the laws and institu-
tions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We appealed to those of na-
ture, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet we did not
avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced
to assume it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and
forms had entered little into our former education. We estab-
COREESPONDENOE. 357
lished however some, although not all its important principles.
The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is
inherent in the people ; that they may exercise it by themselves,
in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in
electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding
by a jmy of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact
is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally
chosen ; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed ;
that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion,
freedom of property, and freedom of the press. In the structure
of our legislatures, we think experience has proved the benefit
of subjecting questions to two separate bodies of deliberants ; but
in constituting these, natural right has been mistaken, some mak-
ing one of these bodies, and some both, the representatives of
property instead of persons ; whereas the double deliberation
might be as well obtained without any violation of true prin-
ciple, either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or
by electing a proper number of representatives of persons, divid-
ing them by lots into two chambers, and renewing the division
at frequent intervals, in order to break up all cabals. Virginia,
of which I am myself a native and resident, was not only the
first of the States, but, I believe I may say, the first of the na-
tions of the earth, which assembled its wise men peaceably to-
gether to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to writ-
ing, and place it among their archives, where every one should
be free to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect.
The other States, as they proceeded successively to the same
work, made successive improvements ; and several of them, still
further corrected by experience, have, by conventions, still fur-
ther amended their first forms. My own State has gone on so
far with its premiere ehauche ; but it is now proposing to call a
convention for amendment. Among other improvements, I hope
they will adopt the subdivision of our counties into wards. The
former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four miles
^uare ; the latter should be about six miles square each, and
would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each
358 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
of these might be, 1st. An elementary school ; 2d. A company
of militia, with its ofRicers; 3d. A justice of the peace and con-
stable ; 4th. Each ward should take care of their own poor ;
5th. Their own roads ; 6th. Their own police ; 7th. Elect within
themselves one or more jurors to attend the courts of justice ;
and 8th. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes for all function-
aries reserved to their election. Each ward would thus be a
small republic within itself, and every man in the State would
thus become an acting member of the common government, trans-
acting in person a great portion of its rights and duties, subor-
dinate indeed, yet important, and entirely within his competence.
The wit of man cannot devise a more solid basis for a free, dur-
able and well-administered republic.
With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not
think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They
generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this
is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple
and integral whole. To the State governments are reserved all
legislation and administration, in affairs which concern their own
citizens only, and to the federal government is given whatever
concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States ; these func-
tions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the
other the foreign branch of the same government ; neither hav-
ing control over the other, but within its own department. There
are one or two exceptions only to this partition of power. But,
you may ask, if the two departments should claim each the
same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide
ultimately between them ? In cases of little importance or ur-
gency, the prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from
the questionable ground ; but if it can neither be avoided nor
compromised, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe
the doubtful power to that department which they may think
best. You will perceive by these details, that we have not yet
so far perfected our constitutions as to venture to make them un-
changeable. But still, in their present state, we consider them
uot otherwise changeable than by the authority of the people.
OOEEESPONDENOE. 359
on a spec'.al election of representatives for that purpose expressly :
they are until then the lex legum.
But can they be made unchangeable ? Can one generation
bind another, and all others, in succession forever ? I think not.
The Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead.
Righfe and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not
to mere matter, unendowed with will. The dead are not even
things. The particles of matter which composed their bodies,
make part now of the bodies of other animals, vegetables, or min-
erals, of a thousand forms. To what then are attached the rights
and powers they held while in the form of men ? A generation
may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life ; when
that has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the
rights and powers their predecessors once held, and may change
their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is
unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at
length, of the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers ; for such
the judges have usurped in their repeated decisions, that Chris-
tianity is a part of the common law. The proof of the contrary,
which you have adduced, is incontrovertible ; to wit, that the
common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans,
at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ
pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever existed.
But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means, they
stole this law in upon us. In a case of quare iinpedit in the
Year-book 34, H, 6, folio 38, (anno 1458,) a question was made,
how far the ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common
law court ? And Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his opinion in these
words : "A tiel leis qu' ils de seint eglise out en micien scrip-
ture, covient a nous a donner credence ; car ceo common ley sur
quels touts manners leis sont fondes. Et auxy. Sir, nous sumus
obleges de conustre loin: ley de saint eglise ; et semblablement ils
sont obliges de consustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a
nous que I'evesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en tiel cas, adong
nous devons cee adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy," &c. See S.
360 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
C. Fitzh. Abr. Glu. imp. 89, Bro. Abr. Q,u. imp. 12. Finch in
his first book, c. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes this case
and mistakes it thus : '• To such laws of the church as have
warrant in holy scripture, our law giveth credence." And cites
Prisot ; mistranslating " ancien scripture,'''' into " holy scriptureJ"
Whereas Prisot palpably says, "to such laws as those of ' holy
church have in ancient writing, it is proper for us to give cre-
dence," to wit, to their ancient written laws. This was in 1613,
a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in
1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the common
law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot, Wing. Max.
3. And Sheppard, title, " Religion," in 1675, copies the same
mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Wingate. Hale ex-
presses it in these words : " Christianity is parcel of the laws of
England." 1 Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no au-
thority. By these echoings and re-echoings from one to another,
it had become so established in 1728, that in the case of the
King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court would not sufiier it to
be debated, whether to write against Christianity was punishable
in the temporal court at common law ? Wood, therefore, 409,
ventures still to vary the phrase, and say, that all blasphemy and
profaneness are oifences by the common law ; and cites 2 Stra.
Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale,
that " Christianity is part of the laws of England," citing Ventris
and Strange. And finally. Lord Mansfield, with a little qualifi-
cation, in Evans' case, in 1767, says, that " the essential princi-
ples of revealed religion are part of the common law." Thus
ingulphing Bible, Testament and all into the common law, with-
out citing any authority. And thus we find this chain of author-
ities hanging link by link, one upon another, and all ultimately
on one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation of the words
•' ancien scripture," used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot ; Win-
gate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch and Wing-
ate. Hale cites nobody. The court in Woolston's case, cites
Hale. Wood cites Woolston's case. Blackstone quotes Wool-
ston's case and Hale. And Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures
COERESPOFDENCE. 361
it on his own authority. Here I might defy the best-read law-
yer to produce another scrip of authority for this judiciary forg-
ery ; and 1 might go on further to show, how some of the Anglo-
Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred's laws, the 20th,
21st, 22d, and 23d chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts
of the Apostles, from the 23d to the 29th verses. But this would
lead my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this,
between Church and State ! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues
all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all !
I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowl-
edgments for your good wishes to the University we are now es-
tablishing in this State. There are some novelties in it. Of
that of a professorship of the principles of government, you ex-
press your approbation. They will be founded in the rights of
man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will approve ; and
that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us in
that type and dialect, must be the text books of the reading of the
learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles
of government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send,
shall be placed in the library of the University. Having at this
time in England a person sent for the purpose of selecting some
Professors, a Mr. Gilmer of my neighborhood, I cannot but rec-
ommend him to your patronage, counsel and guardianship, against
imposition, misinformation, and the deceptions of partial and false
recommendations, in the selection of characters. He is a gentle-
man of great worth and correctness, my particular friend, well
educated in various branches of science, and worthy of entire
confidence.
Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure
us a speedy meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and
more fuUy, on the good and evil which, in the course of our
long lives, we have both witnessed ; and in the meantime, I pray
you to accept assurances of my high veneration and esteem for
yom' person and character.
362 JEFFERSON'S WORKS.
TO MARTIN TAN BUKEN.
MoNTicKLLO, June 29, 1824.
Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering's elaborate
philippic against Mr. Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I
have delayed the acknowledgment until I could read it and make
some observations on it.
I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such
a period of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so
vehement and viperous. It appears, that for thirty-years past,
he has been industriously collecting materials for vituperating the
characters he had marked for his hatred ; some of whom, certain-
ly, if enmities towards him had ever existed, had forgotten them
all, or buried them in the grave with themselves. As to myself,
there never had been anything personal between us, nothing but
the general opposition of party sentiment ; and our personal in-
tercourse had been that of urbanity, as himself says. But it
seems he has been all this time brooding over an enmity which
I had never felt, and that with respect to myself, as well as oth-
ers, he has been writing far and near, and in every direction, to
get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, where he
could not, certificates and journals, catching at every gossiping
story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions
what he could find nowhere else, and then arguing on this mot-
ley farrago, as if established on gospel evidence. And while ex-
pressing his wonder, that " at the age of eighty-eight, the strong
passions of Mr. Adams should not have cooled ;" that on the con-
trary, "they had acquired the mastery of his soul," (p. 100;)
that " where these were enlisted, no reliance could be placed on
his statements," (p. 104;) the facility and little truth with which
he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning persons who
were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that " he is capable of
making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached facts,
and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable infer-
ences, if suited to his purpose at the instant," (p. 174;) while
making such charges, I say, on Mr, Adams, instead of his " ecce
OOERESPONDENOE. 363
homo" (p. 100 ;) how justly might we say to him, " mutato nom-
ine, de tefabtda 7iarratur." For the assiduity and industry he
has employed in his benevolent researches after matter of crim-
ination against us, I refer to his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71. 79,
90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. 104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146, 150,
151, 153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr. Adams' strictures on him,
written and printed, should have excited some notice on his part,
was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the sufficiency of his
motive for the large attack on me may be mor
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